What happens when you mix robots, 3D printing, and recyclability? You get Dirk Vander Kooij, a Dutch designer who has created a 3D-printer robot along with a process for designing and printing award-winning furniture.
According to his Website and industry reports, Kooij got his hands on an old industrial robot from China, which he reprogrammed and modified on his own, essentially transforming it into a 3D printer of sorts. The material for his self-constructed printing machine is a plastic that is the end product of recycling refrigerator interiors. Working off 3D CAD files of Kooij's designs, the self-made 3D printer extrudes the recycled plastic into modern furniture in a continuous back-and-forth movement, much like piping icing on a cake, until the furniture shape is formed.
The story is that Kooij cranked out 54 prototypes of the Endless chair before he perfected the lines and curves and created something that was comfortable enough to sit in. Now, a couple of years into the process, Kooij has fine tuned his furniture printing effort so that he can pump out rocking chairs or tables in just about three hours. He can even apply colors, allowing him to customize his furniture to his or his customers' liking.
Dirk Vander Kooij's Endless furniture line is made of recycled refrigerator materials and is 3D printed using an industrial robot that was modified to do the job. (Source: Dirk Vander Kooij)
The furniture line, dubbed Endless because of the continuous movement of the robot piping out the plastic ropes, has won all kinds of accolades and design awards in Europe, and it is generating lots of press, in part because of the enthusiasm around the unique approach to 3D printing. (The video on the next page shows Kooij's process from the earliest stage of recycling refrigerator plastic to exactly how his self-made robot turns a continuous stream of plastic coils into artful furniture.)
What the Kooij effort showcases, along with some other recent developments in the consumer space, is how 3D printing is becoming a more familiar part of the mainstream zeitgeist. It also highlights the fact that cheaper, more accessible 3D printing and 3D CAD and content creation tools and services are allowing mainstream folks to crank out their own custom designs, whether they be jewelry or mechanical parts. According to industry watchers and companies promoting 3D printing technologies, the trend is toward a novel delivery paradigm where 3D CAD models of mainstream products and innovations are readily available for download on the Web. This lets individuals output, for example, replacement parts for appliances at will, along with custom jewelry and novelties.
@bobjengr: That's what makes the furniture application so interesting to me. It's not where you would expect 3D printing to be applied, but as the technology advances and a wider swath of people are exposed, it is being put to novel uses in all kinds of areas. At the same time, it's delivering benefits from the ability to effectively do one-off manufacturing to serving as a way for people to bring ideas to life more quicker. So many different possibilities.
Charles, I certainly agree with you on this one. I think technology enhances creativty instead of stifling creativity. Then again, we are always looking for better methods to design a more functioal "mouse trap". The ability to produce on-of-a-kind is intriguing also. I would never have thought of using additative manufacturing to produce furniture but if it works it works.
@CLMcDade: You raise a good point that the 3D printing around prescriptions could have been done in a separate article. The point of combining the two was to take a look at really offbeat applications for 3D printing to showcase the versatility of the technology.
I agree with all that $1K is a bit pricey for a chair, but I'm thinking it's positioned more as art and less about functional furniture.
The real advantage of using an industrial robot to do the 3D printing is the scale of items that can be produced. Making prototypes or one-offs will be possible for larger items without the need to purchase a very large 3D printing machine.
A one-off might be steep at $1,000 but if you use it for a mold to make endless duplicates, that's pretty cheap. Some engineering could go into it to make it structurally sound while using less material.
I missed the mention of $1,000 a pop in the article. What is priced at $1,000 and is thus a "feel good product like EVs"? It can't be the chairs themselves because $1,000 for a stylish, ergonomic and comfortable chair is a bargain. Add in the possibility mentioned of customizing it to an individual customer and the value skyrockets.
Utilizing a robot to apply the layer-by-layer build-up takes 3D printing to another level by removing it from the limitations of a fixed sized enclosure. As a prototype process, the ability to iterate in full size to dial in comfort without shaving blue foam, shaping plywood or laying out resin is an incredible step forward.
The home medicine aspect of the article was interesting, but could have been a separate article as it addresses a totally different application and industry and raises ethical and legality concerns separate from the cool possibilities opened up by Kooij's creation.
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