Mataerial "Anti-Gravity" Printing

I recently saw the video below, and this is the first time I've seen a 3D printer of this type:

[www.mataerial.com]

[www.youtube.com]

Is there a particular name/category for this kind of 3D printing?

It seems like it could be espeecially useful for creating structures in outer space. I was thinking that printing such curvilinear segments could be useful in creating ribbing for pressure vessels. Alternatively, printing linear segments could be used to make truss or lattice structures.

Could there be a way to improve this printing technology by embedding in carbon composite fibers to increase tensile strength? If so, then how could it be done?

Are there any DIY projects out there for building a printer of this type?

"Anti-Gravity" Printing is just marketing. It may be good for some things, but I really cant see a use without knowing strength of finished part.

to me it looks like a fancy paste extruder. probably a thermal plastic about 4mm in thickness out of nozzle. yikes!

Yeah, I understand that "anti-gravity printing" is a phrase they came up with, for branding purposes. And yet it does still connote the fact that this approach to 3D fabbing can work from any kind of surface having any orientation or angle.

The main thing for me is that it seems to be a new technique which I haven't really seen showcased by anyone before. Yes, it does look like a simple glue extrusion gun, but I've never seen this method being used to make truly larger macro-sized structures.

Again, trying to think from a purely practical view, what kind of applications could this glue-extrusion printing technique be best suited for? Can it only work with thermoplastics and maybe epoxy glue, or could it possibly work with something else like metal too? Is there any way that this thing could be used to create iron rebar, for example?

I'd imagine that it shouldn't be too difficult to embed long carbon fibers or wire filaments into these extrudable segments.

We've all heard of research on 3D printing for making houses, buildings and custom architectural structures, like the "Contour Crafting" research going on at University of Southern California. Could this extrusion-gun approach to printing be used to make compressive load-bearing members which could hold up building structures? Could this extrusion-gun approach even be used to directly extrude piping and plumbing into walls, floors and cielings even while the building is being printed?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2013 11:49PM by sanman.

... I've seen this sort or 'free-floating-printing' maybe 10 years ago with DLM (DirectLaserMelting), where a laserhead on a robot-arm heated a point on a surface, then dust was blown in the hot spot, melting to a blob, and then this continuously added 'blobs' were drawn on contours in space.

They 'printed' then springs in mid-air and much more complex forms too by rotating the part base accordingly to help forming fragile structures against gravity ...

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Viktor
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