Researchers at the University of Maine unveiled the world's largest 3D-printer on Thursday and set 3 Guinness World Records: for the largest printer, the largest solid 3D-printed object and the largest 3D-printed boat. The boat, called the 3Dirigo, is 25 feet long and weighs 5,000 pounds.
Habid Dagher, the executive director of UMaine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center, says the 3Dirigo dwarfs the next largest printed part.
“A 40-pound rowboat on the West Coast of the United States,” Dagher says. “We went from 40 pounds to 5,000 pounds, so hopefully this record will hold for a little while.”
The new 3D printer is designed to print objects as large as 100 feet long, 22 feet wide and 10 feet high, with an eye toward creating a new market for Maine's forest products industry by 3D printing plastics with 50 percent wood. UMaine says the 5,000 pound boat was printed in just 72 hours.
Originally published Oct. 10, 2019 at 3:34 p.m. ET.
