Feb 26, 2018 | By Tess
A 3D printing cafe in Saskatoon, Canada has not only completed the first ever 3D printed camper, but has also captured the title for largest indoor 3D print to date.
Randy Janes, founder of Wave of the Future 3D, stands with 3D printed camper
(Image: Ashley Field / CTV Saskatoon)
A few weeks ago, we wrote about a promising 3D printing project taking place in the Canadian Prairies, which involved 3D printing the world’s first ever camper trailer. It turned out to be more than promising, however, as the ambitious print recently wrapped up with overwhelmingly positive results.
The “Wave” camper, which was 3D printed in a single piece at Create Cafe, spans nearly four meters in length (13 ft), 1.8 meters in width (6 ft), and weighs an impressive 272 kg (600 lbs), making it the largest indoor 3D printed object ever.
“It’s 3.5 times bigger than the previous world record and that’s because it’s done in one piece,” said Dustin Maki, CEO of the Create Cafe. “Nobody has ever accomplished a one-piece print that’s of this stature.”
The camper was 3D printed using the massive ErectorBot 3D printer owned by Wave of the Future 3D, a Canadian startup founded by Randy Janes. The printing process, which took over 230 hours to complete, was enabled in large part thanks to specialized nozzles developed by a team from Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
(Image: Create Cafe / Facebook)
These large-scale nozzles are equipped to 3D print layers as thick as 10 mm, which allowed for the camper to be printed in a relatively short amount of time. Currently, a team of researchers from the school are investigating how to reduce the 3D printer’s vibration, to improve its quality and printing speed. Ultimately, they hope to be able to 3D print an entire camper in under a week.
As with any project of that scale, there were some complications. Maki explains that they faced some “mechanical difficulties” and even had to reboot the printing software at one point. Overall though, it was a big success.
(Image: Create Cafe / Facebook)
For the next week, the finished 3D printed camper will remain on display at Create Cafe before being transported to the Saskatoon Sports and Leisure show.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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What an ambitious project. Good for you. Great example of what can be possible .And I thought me wanting to built a birdhouse on my home made 3D printer would be cool. Needs a little help with the window frames though. Are you using 3mm filament. What material is it. Are you using a nozzle with multiple ports. Unless this iis all a top secret. Congratulations.