Case Study: University of Antwerp achieves rapid, cost-effective production to reduce post-harvest food spoilage with Materialise 3D printing

3D Printing a More Efficient Food Supply Chain with Wakati

University of Antwerp researcher Arne Pauwels developed Wakati to address massive post-harvest losses (nearly 45% of fruit and vegetables) by keeping produce hydrated in a humid micro‑climate instead of using energy‑intensive refrigeration. To iterate and validate the ventilator housing he partnered with Materialise, using 3D printing (FDM for prototypes and stereolithography for masters) to accelerate design and testing.

Materialise’s 3D printing services enabled rapid optimization and cost‑effective prototyping, and the final stereolithography parts were used as masters for vacuum casting to scale to a 120‑unit production run. The resulting Wakati units use less than 1% of the energy of a refrigerator, delivering an affordable, sustainable solution to reduce post‑harvest losses.

University of Antwerp

Arne Pauwels

University of Antwerp