A Giant 3D Printer Prints Out An Entire Boat, Setting Three World Records

The University of Maine just made three world records with its 3D-printed boat.

Using the largest prototype for a polymer 3D printer in the world, the team of UMaine built the largest ever 3D-printed boat. The boat has also become the largest solid object that has ever been 3D-printed.

Below is a time-lapse video with which you can watch the three-day construction of the boat.

On October 10, during a ceremony, the Advanced Structures and Composites Center of UMaine unveiled the 3D-printed. The officials of the Guinness World Records were also there to confirm that three new records had indeed been set by the group.

When the event ended, the ship called 3Dirigo which is 25 feet long and 5,000 pounds in the Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Laboratory of UMaine. The testing involved a multidirectional wave basin as well as a high-performance wind machine.

According to a press release from UMaine, the world-record 3Dirigo is not even the largest object that the 3D printer of the school can construct. Its limitation is objects that can be up to 100 feet long, 10 feet high, and 22 feet wide.

The school already has inline several applications for the printer, which include a collaboration with the U.S. Army. Through the partnership, UMaine will assist the army in developing soldiers’ shelter systems which could be deployed quickly.