What do you call a 3D printer that fills up a large building and can print objects 29 meters by 10 meters by 5.5 meters? Humongous? Gigantic? Whopping?
The new 3D printer that defies adjectival assignment was revealed last month at the University of Maine. The mega-printer is four times larger than the University’s original behemoth, unveiled in 2019 and certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest polymer 3D printer.
While the University’s first bigger-than-life printer could create a house, the new 3D printer may one day create entire neighborhoods, offering an avenue to affordable housing , according to Habib Dagher, director of U. Maine’s Advanced Structures & Composite Center.
Dagher also commented that there could be even larger printers in the future after the University of Maine breaks ground this summer on a new building. “We’re learning from this to design the next one,” he said.
According to Dagher, the university wants to show how homes can be constructed nearly entirely by a printer with a lower carbon footprint. And printed buildings can be recycled. “You can basically deconstruct it, you can grind it up if you wish, the 3D printed parts, and reprint with them, do it again,” Dagher said.
Maine researchers plan to tinker with the material consumed by the machine. They hope to use more bio-based feedstocks from wood residuals that are abundant in Maine, the nation’s most heavily forested state.