April 5, 2014

On Friday LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas gathered 108 computers, 108 3-D printers, and 108 students, and tried to set a Guinness World Record for the greatest number of 3D printers operating simultaneously.



"The Guinness World Record has accepted our record application to create this new international world record and claim the title, if we are successful," said LETU Dean of Engineering Dr. Ron DeLap. "We expect to make history."

The student engineering team tried to get at least 50 3D printers printing the same commemorative coin simultaneously during the public 3D printing demonstration event held at 3 p.m. Friday, April 4, in the Solheim Arena of the Solheim Recreation Center on the LETU campus, 2100 S. Mobberly Ave.

LETU engineering students set up their table-top 3D printers and laptop computers along rows of eight-foot tables in a U-shape surrounding the Solheim Arena. Many of the printers, were made by other printers the students put together themselves.

When engineering professor Dr. Jesse French gave the word, the printers began to each produce a specific plastic commemorative coin.

"These are all student-made, with things that were student-made," said Dr. Jesse French. "So you have some fourth great-grandchildren of the printers sitting here today."

And the students were successful, getting 102 of the 3D printers working at the same time.

Within 15-20 minutes, all of the printers printed simultaneously, reaching the world record attempt. The event was captured in photos and video for documentation purposes, and Guinness World Record guidelines require witnesses.

DeLap said the event is possible because of the university's first-ever requirement last fall for each of its incoming freshmen engineering students to build their own 3D printers in their Introduction to Engineering Practices courses, taught by Dr. Jesse French and Dr. Byron Lichtenberg. Dozens of students participated.

"To my knowledge, LETU is the only university in the country to require all of its incoming freshmen engineering students to build their own individual 3D printers," DeLap said. "Many schools have teams that build 3D printers, but we are, I believe, the first to require that all incoming freshmen build and operate their own individual 3D printers, which the students then can use throughout their college career to build prototypes of things they design."

Update April 5, 2014:

Here is a tip from Pawel Slusarczyk of CD3D that Aleph Objects recorded 109 LulzBot 3D printers running simultaneously on April 3rd, 2014.

At Aleph Objects, Inc, we believe we hold the world record for most 3D printers running simultaneously. On April 3rd, 2014 we recorded 109 LulzBot 3D printers running simultaneously. If you know anyone who has done more, let us know!

We will be contacting the Guinness World Records to submit our claim for the record.

Posted in 3D Printing Events

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Dan wrote at 3/19/2015 4:01:28 PM:

Airwolf 3D just bumped the record to 159.

Ron DeLap wrote at 4/18/2014 4:33:15 AM:

Unofficial claims aside, LeTourneau was officially named the Guinness World Record holder today (4/17/14). While we don't expect to hold the record forever, that was not the biggest story anyway. In our view, it was a big deal just giving our students the opportunity to stretch themselves technically and to have fun participating in a historic event. Kudos to Lulzbot on their accomplishment as well. Lets all keep pushing our young people to grow and excel in technical fields!

3DSoul wrote at 4/11/2014 6:15:11 AM:

I'm not sure you can call this an "epic fail." LULZBOT is obviously a manufacturer or someone who sells the 3D printers, not very impressive compared to the 102 eighteen and nineteen year old kids who individually built their own 3D printers. Good try though buddy! :-)

Pawel Slusarczyk CD3D wrote at 4/5/2014 2:36:05 PM:

LOL at the very same time LULZBOT presented video on their official YT account that they had 109 working 3D printers. I`m affraid LeTourneau University received an EPIC FAIL :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_jUObUGLTA



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