6-axis 3D printer can print on irregular surfaces

Yong Chen and his team at USC Engineering have built a six-axis-of-freedom 3D printer that can rotate its build platform and heads to enable it to print on irregular, curved and slanted surfaces; shown here, a 3D print on a curved bottle.

Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Yong Chen of the University of Southern California has been experimenting with different mechanical arrangements for 3D extrusion printing…

The six axes operate similar to a delta unit, but offer the ability to tilt the extruder. This means, for example, this device can print on a slanted surface as the image above shows. Even more amazing is its ability to print on a curved surface, as seen here in the example of a print pasted onto a glass bottle.

Amazing Six-Axis 3D Printer Shown [General Fabb/Fabbaloo]

(via Beyond the Beyond)