Another Large-Format 3D Printer is Coming – With a Twist

By on December 11th, 2016 in printer

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 The Dragon six-extruder large-format 3D printer
The Dragon six-extruder large-format 3D printer

A Croatia-based company hopes to launch a very large-format 3D printer in the next three months. 

Darko Strojevi is to introduce the “DRAGON”, a plastic filament-based 3D printer, which has a variable build volume from 400 x 400 x 400mm to 2,000 x 2,000 x 2,000mm. It sounds like their first model will be 1,200 x 1,200 x 800mm, placing it in the same size bracket as 3D Platform, Titan Robotics and BigRep. 

 The Dragon 3D printer is large enough to hold several people
The Dragon 3D printer is large enough to hold several people

But as is usually the case, a company must differentiate itself from the competition in some way. This project is no different as the Dragon appears to have at least three interesting features for a large-format machine: 

First, the machine can use pellets as the input material, dramatically reducing costs and offering the potential for speedy extrusion, if the extruder is designed to do so. However, I was not able to find any statistics on this. 

The machine’s most unique feature is that it has no less than three gantries, each holding two extruders. Yes, there are SIX extruders on this machine. This means you could potentially 3D print six identical (or unique) objects simultaneously, or have all six work together on a large object or objects. This is a great way to speed up printing operations.

Finally, the Dragon can apparently use interchangeable print heads: You can swap out a 3D print extruder for a CNC mill, for example. The company says you can use “3 and 5 axes CNC machines and work on wood, aluminum, plastic….any nonferrous material”.

 A milling head attached to the Dragon large-format 3D printer
A milling head attached to the Dragon large-format 3D printer

I have no idea on pricing for this item, as it hasn’t yet been launched. But I expect it to be in the more than USD$10,000 range for sure, perhaps much higher.

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!