Robot prints chairs from recycled waste

Vander Kooij, a 28-year-old Dutch interior artist, and his 3D printing robot have been snapping up awards at major design exhibitions in Europe for their work in 3D printed furniture, Mashable writes.

His latest exhibition took place at the Domus Academy, in Milan, last weekend.

In 2010, while still a student at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Kooij acquired an industrial robot from China and reconfigured it into a 3D printer capable of printing furniture with material recycled from discarded refrigerators.

According to Singularity Hub, the robot, named Furoc, prints out furniture as a continuous line hundreds of metres long and can produce a chair in a variety of colours and designs in just three hours.

Kooij says the method allows structures to be made 40 times faster than traditional 3D printing and can produce 4 000 chairs a year.

To see the robot in action, click here.