Caracol has been exploring a range of different applications for their large-format robotic LFAM 3D printing system.
The company is known for its ability to print large polymer objects, such as the 3D printed furniture items shown below. In fact, they have customers that have established businesses specifically to print furniture with their technology.
But in recent months, they’ve been identifying a number of new applications, not the least because they introduced a metal 3D printing capability late last year.
Here we see an air grill for a yacht, 3D printed with ASA-GF material. This 72-hour print is quite large, 4200 x 400 x 400 mm, and weighs 40kg. As you can see, the part is quite complex and would be challenging to produce using conventional methods. Caracol said this part can be made twice as fast as with traditional methods, with a similar amount of material savings. It’s also lighter than conventionally made equivalent parts.
But it turns out this is not the big application discovery for Caracol. It seems they’ve realized that their equipment can play a big role in the construction industry. No, they are not 3D printing buildings with polymer, but instead, they are printing concrete formworks.
These are essentially large molds to hold concrete while it sets. Caracol said the material they’ve been using successfully with this application is PP-GF, which sounds both strong and durable.
Durable is important because the formworks are intended to be re-used. Halves can be bolted together for pouring and then disassembled after curing completes. Caracol representatives told us they’ve seen “great interest from the construction industry” about this application, and they also believe their approach could be combined with regular 3DCP technology — even using the same concrete materials — to increase the 3D print content of building projects.
Finally, we asked them about the effects of tariffs on their operation, as they happen to be based in Europe. They explained that by mere chance, they had already set up (and are now expanding) a facility in Texas to manufacture equipment, so they should not have major issues with tariffs, unlike several other 3D printer manufacturers.
Via Caracol
