This 3D Printer Just Built a Car by Itself – Functgraph Revolution

Imagine this: You walk into a tech lab and see a tiny white car cruising across the table—completely untouched by human hands. You’re not dreaming. You’re witnessing Functgraph from Meiji University, the wildest leap in desktop automation I’ve ever seen.

Here’s what’s crazy. This isn’t just any 3D printer. Functgraph takes the off-the-shelf FDM printer you probably already have and straps on custom hardware to turn it into a fully automated micro-factory. We’re talking print, tool switch, and autonomous assembly—every step, one continuous G-code file, zero human intervention.

The whole process is mesmerizing. Start with a roll of filament; watch as it precisely prints each car component, even the gripper tools it’ll use in a minute. Then—this is where it gets real futuristic—the printer auto-switches to a robotic gripper, picks up parts, and starts snapping axles and wheels together like it’s on an assembly line. The machine calmly builds a working car from the ground up, on its own, in real time.

And the real breakthrough here? That’s the multi-tool switching and unified G-code. The same workflow that tells the printer to extrude filament also tells it “now grab a wheel, now attach that axle, now go home.” No resets, no servers, no button mashing—just pure, orchestrated automation.

We’ve been talking about Industry 4.0 and next-gen fabrication for years, but this? This is it. Desktop rapid prototyping that hits play and walks away.

So, what would you build if your printer could assemble anything, hands-free? Drop your boldest ideas in the comments—I want to see how far we can push this tech!