Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/24/university-of-maine-beats-its-own-record-for-the-worlds-largest-3d-printer.html
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While this doesn’t sound impressive, imagine printing modules that can click together to form a bigger structure. Or a unit that rides up a tower printing one room/floor at a time.
"habitat 67 - wikipedia "
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Stacking modules together to build larger structures is already a thing. No 3D printing required.
To be honest I haven’t been very impressed with the 3D printed demonstration buildings I’ve seen so far. Mostly the printers have only been used to build unreinforced vertical walls, which is just a fraction of the process for constructing a building. In addition to structural elements like steel rebar, buildings need a foundation (including all the prep work done to the ground ahead of pouring a foundation), plumbing, electrical, insulation, roofs, windows, doors and a ton of other miscellaneous stuff that 3D printers won’t be fabricating anytime soon.
On top of that, most of the 3D printed buildings have incredibly boring designs with mostly flat, rectangular forms. The greatest promise of 3D printers is that they allow you to create wild new shapes that you couldn’t easily do with traditional construction techniques. As long as they’re using 3D printers they might as well make structures that look like something out of a Dr Seuss book.
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So far, the bigger they get the less excited I am about how big they are. 500lbs per hour is neat, but I’m holding out for funky nozzles or cryo-cooled high speed or something to really blow my mind.
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