World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP), based in Italy, is making an enormous 12-meter 3D printer.
Named BigDelta, the printer is claimed to be the world's largest delta-style1 3D printer to date and is being targeted to the maker community. WASP intends for the printer to allow anybody in the third world to create a house using locally sourced materials.
Few details about the printer are yet available, but WASP will use the printer’s upcoming debut to demonstrate its capabilities.
The event will include workshops and conferences on everything from hydroponics and Pilates to creative writing. The BigDelta printer is even slated to feature in a stage play called "Shamballa."
BigDelta is meant to contribute to WASP's ideal of a "Maker Economy." In this model, all the necessities of life (housing and everyday products, etc.) can be created on an individual basis using shared solutions.
WASP seeks to use BigDelta to 3D print affordable housing for poverty-stricken communities in the third world, using materials such as regionally abundant clays to produce entire homes. Answers as to how the printer will do this are currently unavailable.
Providing housing for impoverished communities around the world is hoped to help curb the growing problem of poverty in the coming decades. The number of slum dwellers has grown to almost a billion people or one out of every seven individuals on earth. Let's hope that the BigDelta puts a dent in this number.
The BigDelta 3D printer will be unveiled at an upcoming “Reality of Dreams” show, taking place September 18–20 in Massa Lombarda, Italy.
1. In the world of 3D printers, the two most common types are Cartesian and delta. Cartesian is the more common type, exemplified by bestselling 3D printers by 3D Systems and Stratasys, which deposit their material based upon a 3D Cartesian coordinate system. Delta-style 3D printers, on the other hand, get their positioning information using trigonometric functions abind have an advantage in being able to create taller and bigger objects, as they are not constrained by the smaller build volumes of Cartesian-style printers.