14 DAY TRIAL // There are small 3D printers, there are large 3D printers, there are huge 3D printers, and then there is the KUKA Quantec from Artis Engineering, an additive manufacturing machine that can build things larger than life.
This has to be one of the very few situations where “larger than life” almost doesn't qualify as a hyperbole.
We can all agree that 100 cubic meters is a huge volume of space, more than can be attributed to most rooms, whether they belong to apartments or homes.
German company Artis Engineering may have just achieved a Guinness World Record for the largest ever 3D printer by creating an additive manufacturing machine with a build volume of 100 cubic meters.
The Artis KUKA Quantec 3D printer
Technically speaking, the full build volume of the 3D printer is 150 meters (13 x 4 x 3.5 meters), but the largest objects / structures possible to make with it are limited to 100 cubic meters.
A 7-axis system is used, along with a tool changer. The printer can do everything from milling, sanding and polishing to hot wire cutting.
So we suppose you could call this more of a CNC machine than a 3D printer, but it is capable of additive manufacturing, so the appellation still fits.
All in all, for a company of 30 people that specializes in engineering and construction, the KUKA Quantec is a very impressive piece of work, as will the objects / buildings created by it.
At present, the industrial robot cannot make use of its full build volume, but the company believes that 100 cubic meters will be possible eventually.
If not buildings, then at least cars will be possible to make in a single print run, and if the robot movements are synced with the extruder, they will be able to turn the printing extruder into an eighth axis, so to speak. According to Simon Lullin of Artis Engineering at least.
The ETA for practical applications
The new KUKA Quantec CNC machine can already be used for a variety of tasks, but large-scale 3D printing will take a while, since it still needs some hardware added before everything runs in concert as it should. Perhaps in a year or so.