Back in the 90s, a team from Materialise set out to achieve quite a large goal – a mammoth goal one might say (if they were drawn to puns).
Back then, the stereolithography machines on the market did not fully meet the needs of our customers or the large parts they were hoping to prototype, so we developed a unique machine to solve that problem. The result was a stereolithography machine capable of building huge parts in one piece thanks to a build area of more than 2 meters – the Mammoth! A part created on a Mammoth printer was first introduced during Euromold in 2000 and was the crowning glory of our modest booth. We could not wait to see people’s reaction and experience the orders flooding in when people saw what we had achieved. However, there was a downside to creating something as incredible as the Mammoth – people had trouble believing that it was truly possible to print parts of that size. Luckily, the shock eventually wore off and slowly but surely, more and more companies discovered the benefits of prototyping large parts, often to scale.
Over the years, the doubters have not only been fully convinced, but some pretty incredible objects (and people) have been brought to life thanks to Mammoth technology. Currently, our Factory for 3D Printing in Leuven, Belgium boasts 13 Mammoth machines that are 3D Printing away day and night to fill the orders coming in and continue to act as the highlight for tours of our facilities.
