It would seem than can surprise manufacturers of 3D printers, even if liquid metal can be used for printing? But the Chinese company DediBot still managed to do something unique: flying a 3D printer Fly Elephant. Well, if you want a drone with built-in 3D printing.
Under six rotor Fly Elephant with the three-dimensional printing Open-ended Additive Manufacturing (OAM), which can output through a special extruder suitable material for three-dimensional printing. In addition, the device is quite accurate and allows the printing accuracy of 0.1 mm.
In addition, a flying 3D printer can be used in conjunction with other such devices. Roy such printers can create a single part from different materials. While the advantage of this approach is that the size of the final product is not limited to a work space like in most desktop 3D printers.
Have a drone and a significant drawback: low duration of batteries. But the company DediBot plans to equip the device with wireless charging technology. In any case, the presented model is only a test sample, and the Chinese continue to improve and develop the device, which at the moment seems very promising. Imagine a swarm of drones on their own, “prints” buildings and other architectural objects almost without human intervention!
Fly Elephant: first flying 3D printer
Vladimir Kuznetsov