The mammoth 3D printer MasterPrint - created by the Machine Tools division of the Camozzi Group - is the world’s largest device that prints with plastic. The 3D MasterPrint printer - included in the Guinness Book of World Records - is able to create objects up to over 30 metres long, 6 metres wide and 3 metres tall.

Built at the Ingersoll plant in Rockford (USA), it was designed mainly to make tools for the aerospace industry.

The University of Maine has recently purchased MasterPrint to make moulds for the boat-building industry, which is really large in the state of Maine.

The university has already used the device to produce a 7-metre long boat in less than 72 hours. The boat was launched in an ocean simulator and has the distinction of being the world’s largest solid 3D-printed item and largest 3D-printed boat.

Moreover, the university researchers are partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create a plastic that uses wood fibres in it, which is more environmentally friendly than material with carbon fibre or fibreglass in it.