Additive Manufacturing Goes Big with 3DP Unlimited

The drive has been on for a while now to push additive manufacturing (AM) into larger formats. It isn’t enough that the technology is capable of building almost any design that can be conceived, it has to be able to super-size them too. It’s almost enough to make one think 3D printing was born in Texas.

If you, or your business, is one of those for whom size does matter, Illinois-based 3DP Unlimited is here to fulfill your fondest 3D-printed wishes. The company has designed and developed an AM system based on open source principles that is capable of printing large-scale pieces. 3DP Unlimited calls the system the 3DP1000, and has positioned the system to sell with pricing under $20,000.

So how big is big? The 3DP1000 has a build envelope of 1 x 1 x 0.5 m (39 x 39 x 19 in.). The system uses fused filament fabrication for its process (essentially fused deposition modeling), and is capable of handling a number of different materials including PLA (polylactic acid), NinjaFlex, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), Polycarbonate, Nylon, HIPS and PVA. As for accuracy, 3DP Unlimited claims the system is capable of layer resolution up to 70 microns.

If you are into aesthetics, the 3DP1000 isn’t likely to do much for you. It looks pretty much like what you’d expect from what is basically a giant RepRap printer. The open source design extends to software, where customers are offered the option of working with Repetier, Slic3r or Simplify 3D.

A possible bummer for those of you out there celebrating the power to print, say, custom PC towers, is the amount of time required to finish a print. Remember, this is still basic 3D printing. Have a look at the Frankenstein monster head picture above. That required 144 hours (around six days) to complete printing, at a material cost of $220.

I think the real story with the 3DP1000 isn’t the size of prints the system is capable of producing, but the number of prints it can produce in one build cycle. A company is far more likely to require a large number of small objects to be printed than one giant object. Below you’ll find a video that discusses the electronics side of the 3DP1000.

Source: 3DP Unlimited