Alex Hughes

Belt Printer: An Infinite 3D Printer

One of the goals I've always had on Hypernova Solar is to 3D Print our cars. This is due to several economic and engineering factors that make typical Solar Cars extremely difficult to build, but also the engineering challenges of attempting to 3D print an entire car are super interesting.

Belt Printer is the 2nd iteration of our Large-Scale 3D Printer project, which I am leading. It works by 3D Printing Carbon Fiber & PETG onto a moving conveyor belt, effectively giving us a Z-axis of infinite length. The X and Y axis are both 1 meter.

I have been CADing a 100% realistic model in OnShape the past several weeks, and we've begun machining the bars for the linear rails. Stay tuned to my Twitter account for progress updates!