Is it possible to 3D print furniture? Yes, indeed!
Here we see a 3D printed coffee table, produced on a BigRep 3D printer. Note that the table appears, for all intents and purposes, to be a normal coffee table.
In fact, if you look closely at the top it really isn’t very much different from a conventional coffee table.
Underneath it’s a different story, as you can see unusual structures designed to reduce the amount of material required and introducing different colors to the print.
Of course, to print something so large you’ll need a very large 3D printer, too. These furniture items were produced on the 1000 x 1000 x 1000 build volume BigRep ONE 3D printer, whose company’s motto is “Full Scale 3D Printing”. It’s a pricey item, around USD$39,000 to purchase, but if you happen to have one, you can indeed print furniture.
Is this practical? We think yes and no. For a typical coffee table that looks no different from one you could purchase in the neighborhood furniture store, this approach would clearly be far too expensive.
Where this does become interesting is when you introduce new design into the mix. Print a table, yes, but one that has a design that cannot be duplicated with conventional approaches.
It’s all about design in the end.
Via BigRep
