THE MCOR Matrix printer creates an object out of paper from a computer-generated CAD (computer-aided design) model.
A standard CAD file for a design is prepared for the printer by proprietary MCor software, which renders the design into slices (each slice for a single piece of paper).
About three reams of office paper are loaded into the machine to produce the object, though several – as many designs as will fit the size of an A4 sheet of paper stacked three reams high – can be made in one go.
The paper is passed sheet by sheet into the printer and cut by a tungsten carbine blade.
Each sheet is sprayed with nanoparticles of a water-based adhesive to adhere to the next sheet and, slowly, the object is built from the bottom up.
More adhesive goes on the cross-sections and less on the waste paper, to reduce wastage. A sheet might have up to 48,000 dots of adhesive.
When finished – a process that takes several hours – the object comes out still encased in the block of paper and is then popped out. It looks and feels as if it is made from lightweight wood.
The model can then be coated with a special adhesive, sanded and painted to give it a hard protective exterior.
The objects and waste are biodegradable and ecofriendly.
"This is a machine that will revolutionise the way things are designed in the future," says chief executive Dr Conor MacCormack, who co-founded the company in 2004 with his brother Fintan.
Before him on a table sit a solid model of a human hand, a motor impeller, and a small hollow model of a house, all made in their printer from compressed paper. The house took about eight hours to produce, while the solid hand ran to 15 hours, he says.
The Mcor Matrix is now available direct in Ireland and the UK and it is expected to be rolled out globally in 2009.