Most of the 3D-printed objects we see are made of some kind of hard, rigid material that nobody wants to cuddle with. That’s not really a bad thing, but those of us who want to make something softer and more cuddly with a 3D printer have been left hanging. Don’t worry though, Disney has exactly what people like us want, and it developed it alongside researchers from Cornell and CMU.
We’ve seen lots and lots of 3D printers over the last few years, and they almost all have one thing in common: the objects they print are hard* and mostly rigid. What if you wanted to print something soft instead? Something you can hug, or snuggle with, or hand to your kid without fear of them jabbing it in their eye? Disney is on it. Built by Disney’s research lab along with researchers from Cornell and CMU, this 3D printer isn’t like most printers we’ve come to know. It’s neither extruding melted material (like a Makerbot) or blasting a tub of goo with UV light to precisely solidify it (like a Form1). In fact, it’s as much a laser cutter as it is a 3D printer. The machine builds the object up layer by layer by cutting shapes out of a sheet of adhesive felt, cramming/heating each layer together as it goes. You know those 3D puzzles where you stack a bunch of sheets to eventually build a weird, blocky version of Abe Lincoln’s head? It’s like that, but created on the fly.