3D printer capable of printing furniture now available

21 Feb 2014

Seen as the next stage in 3D printing revolutionising manufacturing, the release of the BigRep One 3D printer now means entire furniture pieces can be 3D printed.

Up until recently, 3D printers have only been able to produce items that would be considered small-scale objects that could be easily transportable.

Now the BigRep ONE will allow a printing volume of more than one cubic metre, making it possible to produce prototypes and models at a scale of 1:1, as well as creating final products, such as designer furniture.

Marcel Tasler and Lukas Oehmigen founded the brand new German company and their machine works by using the FDM/FFM method (fused deposition modelling/fused filament modeling), which is considered the most cost-efficient method on the market, and allows the use of a wide pallet of colours and materials.

“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 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 metre.”

The printer will initially be sold in New York with an estimated price of US$39,000.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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