Gallery: This Gigantic 3-D Printer Can Create an Entire Table
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The BigRep 3-D printer can produce furniture-sized objects in a single piece.
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BigRep was invented by Lukas Oehmigen, who grew up under communist rule in East Germany.
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BigRep's aluminum frame is just over five feet in every dimension and the build area is a robust 45x39x47 inches.
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"You can print usable structurally strong parts, which you can bend like a strongbow, at the same time being as hard as a bone," he says.
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BigRep compares favorably to the MakerBot and features a 100 micron layer thickness, the ability to print PLA or ABS, and a dual-extruder print head which allows the system to print in multiple colors.
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"We get inquiries from all over the place, from oil-rig manufacturers, experimental vehicle builders, furniture designers, the defense industry, and medical stuff," says Oehmigen.
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Oehmigen and his seven-month-old company have primarily focused on furniture, but are working on ambitious plans to tackle automotive and architectural scale projects soon. "These probably won't look like your ordinary car or house though," he warns.
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"We actually want a new profession to take hold, called the '3-D Manufacturer,' and create a lot of jobs, instead of doom thinking about how all jobs are lost to robots," says says Oehmigen.
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It takes approximately two spools of material, about $150 worth of plastic, to create a full-sized end table.
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"I was not really interested in producing perfect prints," says Oehmigen. "In fact I was pleased by all the little errors and oddities the machine embedded in the prints."
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BigRep is optimized to use PLA, a plastic derived from corn that is biodegradable, ensuring that the massive parts don't become landfill.
