Wondering what to do with the spare room?...Turn it into a giant 3D printer!

Does the idea of an open source, affordable, self-replicating, 3D printer that can utilise an entire room to print large objects like a giant Tower of Babel appeal to you? Then this 3D printer coined the ‘Hangprinter’, might be right up your street. Incorporating a computer controller system of wires and pulleys which are anchored to the walls, ceiling and the floor of a room. This unique web-like configuration does not depend on a box, frame or rails and can be attached to any stable surface.

The Swedish inventor, a physics student at Umea University, Torbjorn Ludvigsen, spent 3 years designing and developing this unique printer which he hopes will help bring 3D printing back to the people, stating that it’s both an experiment in technology as well as sociology. The Hangprinter project is part of an initiative of the RepRap community, the plan is to disseminate 3D-printing technology to low and medium income communities via open-source design and self-replicating machines.

Being open source, anyone can alter aspects of the design to suit their own agenda and aid in its development and has the added benefit of being able to print most of the component parts that it is constructed from and being simple to build is very handy. This methodology increases the lifespan dramatically, offering numerous benefits that you don’t find with a commercially available printer with its built-in obsolescence, and replacing the throw-away culture of those machines.

As the design develops it’s hoped that it will be versatile enough to print furniture or even fully functional machines with their own moving parts. Currently, in its prototype stage, Torbjorn admits that there is certainly room for improvement, which is part of his reason to offer the design for free. With there being so many possible applications and uses for Hangprinter, Torbjorn freely admits that he can’t possibly think of every application and wouldn’t want to stand in the way of progress, he is also hoping to raise money via crowdfunding to carry on with the Hangprinters development.

The sky is the limit, literally, concerning the size of an object you can print, governed by whatever the printer is suspended from and not by the constraints of a printer housing, guide bars and frames. It’s not much of a stretch of the imagination to see a device such as this printing a building, or a boat, for example. The future appears to be bright for this invention and it will be interesting to see what it can do and how its design develops in the coming years.

You will find further details for all the plans and codes click here

For the Hangprinter Blog click here

And for more videos click here