3DP Unlimited Shows Off Some of Their Incredible, Large-scale 3D Prints

At attention! 3D printing has captured a worldwide audience with noteworthy, valid impact in all the major industries and disciplines, from aerospace to medicine. 3D printing is inspiring and thought provoking. People are talking and planning and watching—from scientists and engineers and artists and more—to my mother, who knows nothing about the technology, but now clips out every newspaper article for me on 3D printing she can find.

We see a lot of small items being 3D printed and featured in the news though as the general public is slowly becoming aware of this incredible technology.  In fact, the media has been running wild, covering stories about 3D printing prosthetic limbs, cars, human cells ,and the likes. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a new technology, isn’t it? The geniuses in our midst just keep knocking down the barriers though—like the mechatronics engineers who are the backbone of 3DP Unlimited, where they are showing us numerous and substantial examples of what you can do with an affordable large scale 3D printer.

The very thought of what 3D printing could produce is a common conversation these days. As the headlines flash left and right, and people shake their heads in wonder at medical devices, breakthroughs, and innovative designs from automobiles parts to haute couture, you often hear the question regarding when we will be able to 3D print anything larger. Well, can you 3D print me a house? A car? How about a personal assistant? These are all concepts in the works for sure, but that’s just it—there are a lot of concepts floating around. People are curious about seeing the 3D printing industry shake up the world on an even larger scale. We are greedy when it comes to technology and innovation. Give us more, and make it bigger.

Ilinois-based 3DP Unlimited is doing just that, offering you a tremendous bang for your buck in machinery, and a whole new large-scale production world to explore on your own. 3DP Unlimited truly does have all the bases covered for 3D printing – and they have the technology to print them all at one time as well, should that be your request. What is a mechatronics engineer, you may wonder? These innovative individuals specialize in the combination of electronics and mechanical engineering. At 3DP Unlimited, we see an experienced group of engineers who took matters into their own hands after bearing the brunt of unpredictability and unreliability with trying to 3D print items required in their field. Their main focus for use of the 3D printing equipment they have created is in making affordable industrial strength linear motion components, actuators, and motors

Yes, the 3DP 1000 can print a chair. How about a sailboat deck? A gas tank for your motorcycle? The examples are varied but they all have one thing in common: these are not small figurines, and they can be printed easily and affordably–by you. With the large build capacity of the 3DP 1000, you can also:

• Print multiple copies of the same file.
• Print a large assembly from multiple components.
• Print multiple objects one after another, in sequence.

With a build area of 1000 mm x 500 mm x 1000 mm, and platforms available at under $20,000, you can become your own factory and take off running to make all those concepts reality, on your own time.  Although we have written about this printer in the past, 3DP Unlimited has recently showed off some of their larger, more complicated prints.  Examples of 3DP Unlimited’s latest works are:

• The sailboat deck, at a cost of only $72, featuring a size of X: 915   Y: 165   Z: 82 mm (X: 36   Y: 7   Z: 3 in). Using PLA, it took 42 hours to produce.

• The chair, at a cost of $533, took 225 hours to build, with 1,404,889 mm of 3mm PLA filament used, and 20 percent fill.

• The vehicle rim, at a cost of $251, took 186 hours of print time, with dimensions of  X: 480   Y: 480   Z: 230 mm (X: 19   Y: 19   Z: 9 in), with 30 percent infill.

• The motorcycle gas tank, at a cost of $429, took 251 hours of print time, with dimensions of X: 365   Y: 657   Z: 322 mm (X: 14   Y: 26   Z: 13 in), with 20% infill. It used 1,169,684 mm of PLA 3 mm filament.

• Frankenstein, at a cost of $220, with dimensions of X: 550   Y: 695   Z: 365 mm (X: 22   Y: 27   Z: 14 in) and 8 percent infill.

For more information on the large products you can make with the 3DP 1000, click here.

Offering an extraordinary opportunity for anyone needing to go big or to print a large number of parts in sequence, the 3DP 1000 is garnering attention at many different trade shows and you can check it out at the 3DP Unlimited booth next week at International CES next week in Las Vegas from January 6-9.

Have you had experience with 3D printing any items on a larger scale? What are your thoughts on the pricing and build time associated with the products highlighted in this article? Tell us your thoughts in the 3DP Unlimited forum over at 3DPB.com.