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BigRep Sideboard
This intricate sideboard was printed in one go by the German startup.
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The BIgRep One
The machine was launched earlier this month
Just this weekend I had family round, when the topic of 3D printing came up my builder brother-in-law said “but I couldn’t print a house as the printer isn’t big enough. I couldn’t even make furniture with it.” I did try talk about techniques being developed by the likes of Nervous System and the size of the voxeljet machines but had to concede that realistically, no I couldn’t build a kitchen table in one go.
Imagine my surprise this morning to come in to news that there’s one company striving to do just that with their huge format FDM printer. BigRep has a build volume of 49 cubic feet and prints in 100 micron resolution.
“Large format 3D printing has always been an exclusive right of industrial corporations such as automobile and machine engineering firms. We wanted to change this,” said BigRep, co-founder Marcel Tasler “With the BigRep ONE, professional users now have the opportunity to quickly create and print out their planned object, be it a chair, a structural element or a model house, in a format a bit larger than one cubic meter (49 cubic feet). They can print it directly from their own computer or, in the near future, have it printed at the nearest BigRep 3D service provider.”
The machine, which resembles a giant 3rd generation Solidoodle, was unveiled at Architecture Foundation exhibition in London earlier in the month and retails at $39,000. The Berlin-based co-founders created the printer out of a necessity.
Lukas Oehmigen, artist and founder, lacked an appropriate printer to depict his own sculptures in their “true size,” so he started experimenting. The result was a large format printer that met his needs. His art project LeBigRep generated so many inquiries, that he and his colleague Marcel Tasler invested two years in developing an affordable large format 3D printer.
The sideboard above was printed in its entirety in one go and although that is clearly printed with the usual plastic materials available with FFF machines the company are working on ways to print with a range of materials – at present it can print with PLA, ABS, PVA, HDPE, PC, Nylon, TPE, Laywood and Laybrick.
Although this printer is clearly out of the home price range it will be interesting to see if any print bureaus decide to go with a large format 3D printer and in turn how many people will want to use the service.
