The world’s largest 3D printer is at a university in Maine. He just revealed an even bigger one

ORONO, Maine (AP) — The world’s largest 3D printer has created a home that can reduce construction time and labor. An even larger printer, unveiled Tuesday, could one day create entire neighborhoods.

The machine unveiled Tuesday at the University of Maine is four times larger than the first – put into service less than five years ago – and capable of printing ever more powerful objects. This includes developing its 3D printed house technology using bio-based materials to ultimately demonstrate how printed neighborhoods can provide a pathway to affordable housing to combat homelessness in the region.

Thermoplastic polymers are extruded from a printer dubbed “Factory of the Future 1.0.” There could be even larger printers after the University of Maine breaks ground on a new building this summer, a spokesperson said.

The massive printer “opens new research frontiers for integrating these very large-scale collaborative robotic operations with new sensors, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence,” said Habib Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures & Composite Center at the ‘UMaine, where both printers are located.

Participants at the event included representatives from the Ministries of Defence, Energy and Housing, as well as other stakeholders who are considering using the new technologies made available by the printer. Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said the printer “is a beacon of innovation.”

The printer’s chassis fills the large building it is housed in on the UMaine campus and can print objects 96 feet long by 32 feet wide by 18 feet high (29 meters by 10 meters by 5 .5 meters).

It has a voracious appetite, consuming up to 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of material per hour.

The original printer, named in 2019, was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest polymer 3D printer, the university said. It was used to create a 600 square foot single-family home made of recyclable wood fiber and bioresin materials. Nicknamed “BioHome3D”, it has shown its ability to quickly produce homes. To meet the growing demand for housing, Maine alone will need an additional 80,000 housing units over the next six years, according to MaineHousing.

Dagher said there was a shortage of affordable housing and workers to build homes. The university wants to show how houses can be built almost entirely by a printer with a lower carbon footprint. The building and construction sector accounts for around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the production and use of materials such as cement, steel and aluminum which have a significant carbon footprint, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

These printed buildings can be recycled, which is unique compared to current construction. “Basically, you can deconstruct them, you can grind them if you want, 3D printed parts, and reprint them with them, and start again,” Dagher said before the event.

“It’s not about building a cheap house or an organic house,” he added, referring to the first 3D printed house made entirely with bio-based materials. “We wanted to build a house that people would say, ‘Wow, I really want to live there.’ »

Looking ahead, the researchers plan to tinker with the materials the machine consumes, including more bio-based raw materials from wood residues abundant in Maine, the nation’s most forested state.

But it can be used for a variety of other creations and has already been used for a whole host of things, from boats to Department of Defense structures. In the past, the university displayed a 25-foot boat created by the first printer.

As for the original 3D printer, it’s not going away. The two printers can be used in concert to streamline manufacturing by working on the same project – or even part of it if necessary – and even more of them will work together in the future, officials said.

___

McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.