Canada's Largest Robotic 3D Printer Is Hiding in Squamish, BC
If you drove past our unit nestled in the small industrial district in Squamish, you would have no idea that one of the largest 3D printers in Canada is running inside. There's no sign that screams "robot factory." Just a quiet industrial unit beneath Mount Garibaldi, and inside it, a 7-axis robotic arm that can print objects up to 20 feet long.
Most people picture 3D printing as a small desktop machine slowly building a plastic toy. That's true for one corner of our studio. But at PROTOTYPE 3D, that same technology scales all the way up to furniture, sculpture, architectural panels, and molds for the marine and aerospace industries.
What "large format" actually means
Our biggest system is a 7-axis KUKA robotic arm with a build volume of 5.5 by 20 by 6 feet. Instead of melting plastic filament like a desktop printer, it feeds on plastic pellets, the same raw material used in injection molding, and extrudes them at a much higher rate. That lets us print something the size of a car in a matter of days instead of weeks.
We also run a mid-size LFAM (large format additive manufacturing) gantry system with a 1 by 1 by 2 meter build volume, plus a pair of high-precision Bambu desktop printers for smaller, detail-critical parts. Four scales of 3D printing under one roof means a project can move from a pocket-sized prototype to a full-size finished piece without ever leaving the building.
Why does size matter?
Bigger build volumes mean fewer seams. A coffee table base, an entry bench, or a retail display column can be printed as one continuous piece instead of several smaller parts glued together afterward. That changes what's structurally possible, and it changes how clean the finished surface looks.
It also opens the door to industries that never used to think of 3D printing as an option: automotive tooling, marine parts, architectural facades, and public art installations that would be prohibitively expensive to mold or machine conventionally.
Made in the mountains, not overseas
Every piece that comes out of our Squamish studio is printed on demand, using locally sourced and recycled materials whenever possible. There's no warehouse full of pre-made stock sitting around waiting to sell. If you order it, we print it, right here in the Sea-to-Sky corridor.
If you're curious what a project at this scale could look like, from a single sculptural chair to a full architectural installation, explore our manufacturing scales or start a conversation with our studio.