French Company, Drawn, is Now 3D Printing Entire Furniture Pieces.. And They Are Amazing

When most people think of 3D printing, they picture small objects, no larger than the size of a basketball. This is mostly because of 2 contributing factors. 1) 3D printers are limited in build volume, thus creating obstacles to printing larger item, and 2) 3D printing is an extremely slow process. It is extremely rare to hear about anyone who has 3D printed entire furniture pieces. Just a few days ago, we reported on the BAAM 3D printer, which is capable of printing very large objects at very high speeds. However, it is expected that this printer will cost an incredible amount of money, and there is no word as to who will have access to it yet. There have also been other methods of 3D printing furniture, by an artist named Joris Laarman, but this was done mostly for an art exhibit, using a very expensive robotic arm capable of printing in metal.

This week we learn of a company called Drawn, that is currently showing off their own 3D printed furniture, and the printer responsible for it at Maker Faire Paris. The company’s ultimate goals are to release their own product line of 3D printed furniture, hold workshops to teach individuals how to design and print their own furniture, and lastly allow artists and designers to use their services to print out furniture that they have designed.

It all started back in 2012, when two men, Sylvain Charpiot, and Samuel Javelle met at a campus FabLab creation project in Lyon, France. They both had a common aspiration of creating locally-produced, custom-built furniture. From there, with help from investors, they created a robotic arm 3D printer that they refer to as Galatea (named after a sculpture made by Pygmalion, a mythological Greek sculptor).

This Galatea is capable of 3D printing very large objects, and is used to primarily print furniture. So far Drawn has created several incredible furniture pieces, that they have been showing off at the Maker Faire this week.

“We’ll soon be offering our own exclusive line of furniture for sale, and will be ready to make your interior design projects come to life,” says the company. “Our goal is to make furniture differently, by keeping it simple.”

There is no mention on whether or not Drawn has any plans to sell the actual Galatea 3D printer or not, but surely if there were, there would be many companies lining up to purchase it. From the looks of these 3D printed objects, the layer quality is extremely uniform. Layers appears to be very smooth and consistent. Of course, like other FDM based 3D printing technology, the layers are noticeable to the human eye. In this case, they are extremely noticeable, but Drawn has used this as part of the designs’ appeal. They don’t try and hide the fact that there are lines in the prints, but instead use those lines to make the furniture unique and eye-catching.  It is also capable of printing in multiple colors.

What do you think? Would you purchase any of these furniture pieces? Would you be interested in sending Drawn, your own designs to have them printed out for you? Discuss in the Drawn 3D Printed Furniture thread on 3DPB.com.

Check out the video of the Galatea 3D printer in action, as well as some more photographs of Drawn’s 3D printed furniture below.