Mar 1, 2018 | By Benedict
Chinese 3D printer company DediBot has showcased a flying—yes, flying!—3D printer at TCT Asia 2018. The company’s “Fly Elephant” 3D printer, currently in its concept stage, could theoretically print structures of unlimited size.
If this week has taught us anything, it’s that flying things will always turn heads. A few days ago, Dolce & Gabbana tore up the fashion rulebook by deploying drones to carry its new handbags. Now, a Chinese 3D printing company has equipped a 3D printer with the power of flight.
That company is called DediBot, and the concept behind its flying 3D printer is something called Open-ended Additive Manufacturing (OAM)—open-ended because each axis is limited only by the battery life of the drone, not by the physical constraints of a printer enclosure.
The basic principle of OAM, DediBot says, is “to use UAVs as the print execution units, while still maintaining a very high print accuracy, to achieve rapid prototyping of large…structures.”
It all sounds a little bit crazy, but for large, rough prototypes you can certainly see the appeal. We probably wouldn’t use one outside on a windy day, but DediBot says it could ensure accurate positing by fixing a robotic arm beneath the drone.
DediBot’s most up-to-date functional prototype, the Fly Elephant, is currently being demonstrated at TCT Asia 2018, and the company, certainly not short of ambition, says its drone 3D printing technology could be used to create large buildings, structures in outer space, and even underwater structures.
We’re very excited to see what becomes of this…
Posted in 3D Printer
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the one major flaw that I can already see is the wings cooling the printed parts faster than necessary causing flaws in the material itself once it hardens. Also for printing in space the rotational motion of each individual motor will cause the flying printer to spin radically. Unfortunately I see no prospects to this project whatsoever whether it be here on Earth or in space.
Barry wrote at 3/4/2018 7:19:59 PM:
Yea, this doesn't work.
kaewoei wrote at 3/2/2018 10:05:48 AM:
why say it works when its merely all conceptual?
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