July 10, 2014

If you've ever wanted to own a life-sized 3D prints of yourself or your friends, you're in luck. Qingdao Unique Products Develop Co. Ltd, the developer of the world's largest 3D printer, has unveiled the first life-sized 3D Wax Statue Printer at the World 3D printing technology Industry Conference and Exposition held in Qingdao in June.

Although you can get wax figures of yourself in various sizes made by 3D printer, but none of those 3D printers can realize printing at 1:1 ratio. The 3D wax statue printer developed by Qingdao Unique can print object up to 2 meters height. The printer uses Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. The 3D model is produced by extruding wax filament to form layers as the material hardens immediately after extrusion from the nozzle.

The 3D life-sized wax 3D printer features 90 mm per second travel speed, so it will take 72 hours to print a 50 cm high wax statue, and a life-sized wax figure could take at least a week to finish. To complete such a task, the engineers must ensure all the mechanical systems running perfectly. The company representative told 3ders.org that they have also developed the wax filaments in a variety of colors. Since it is self-developed, the cost of filament is only about RMB150 ~160 /kg (USD24 / kg).

The traditional wax production which is used to create wax figures at the famous Madame Tussauds and other museum is a very complex process and takes in general 3 to 6 months to create. And each wax figure costs at least 160,000 USD. With 3D printing, customers only need to have their bodies scanned and the data can then be processed by a computer and sent to a 3D printer. Customers can get their life-size statue in some weeks. And these 3D printed replicas are much cheaper than the cost of a wax figure created using traditional method.

A 3D printed wax figure created on Qingdao Unique's Wax printer

Qingdao Unique expects that the 3D wax printer can be used in the field of cultural and creative characters, cartoon dolls and personalized design.

Founded in 2001, Qingdao Unique has successfully designed and developed the world largest 3D building printer, multifunction 3D clothing printer and 3D bio-printer for living cells. The company has also signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Westland International Group, Sandi Shikong Network Technology and the bullet train manufacturing leader CSR to provide 3D printing industrial solutions. Qingdao Unique is currently developing a industrial grade full-color resin 3D printer capable of printing transparent, soft, full-color models.





Posted in 3D Printers

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que pasa wrote at 7/11/2014 3:57:36 AM:each wax figure costs at least $160,000 USD Yeah, I'll take 2JJ wrote at 7/10/2014 6:15:08 PM:I'm significantly more interested in their filament and extruder than their plan to print life-size statues... I'd love to be able to print wax with my FDM printer. Lost PLA casting is ok but wax would be a lot better.



