14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printing technology seems to be an exercise in opposites every so often. You can go from a mini printer for making sugar forms to one that can build entire houses in 24 hours just like that.
It's one of the latter types of 3D printers that just caught our eye. Though it's not quite big enough to make homes with.
Sanya Industrial Innovation Design Center, based in Sanya, China, has created a 3D printer that can make cars, boats and other large objects.
Moreover, the printer can create items at very high speeds and from multiple (and apparently affordable) materials at once.
You can make full-color boats, SUVs, crates, lawn ornaments, bells, etc.
The printer itself weighs 15 tons and measures 6 x 3.5 x 3.5 meters / 19 feet and 8 inches x 11 feet and 6 inches x 11 feet and 6 inches.
The objects printed can measure 3.8 x 2.4 x 1.8 meters / 12’6″ X 7’10″ X 5’11″.
And yes, you actually can make bells and watercraft, or whatever else, even furniture, because among the supported materials, there happen to be resins and metals. The material just needs to have a melting point below 450℃ / 842°F. The substances need to be in powder format (this is, after all, an FDM printer that builds layers with an extruder).
About 12 cm / 4.72 inches in height per hour can be done for hollow objects with a diameter of under 1 meter / 3 feet.