Common sense would say that a mattress is absurdly big to print with a 3d printer, right?
Was looking at mattresses & toppers for my kids today and started wondering if maybe there's a better alternative to some of the more expensive options out there.
I've seen some examples of people printing pillows to mimic designs from Purple, but couldn't find any details on anyone trying a full mattress.
Admittedly part of the issue with finding things is that most search engines seem to assume that "mattresses" and "beds" are the same thing and there are a LOT of posts out there talking about beds for 3d printers themselves.
Logically I see 2 possible approaches:
1. A really, really big print bed -- i.e.: something like a large format CNC
Probably the most obvious, but least practical approach for the average person.
2. A modular design
I came across these mattress toppers today based on a grid of independent foam coils and it made me curious how well a similar approach might work if you were 3d printing coils out of TPU.
Biggest challenge would probably be stabilizing them. Maybe TPU gridfinity layers or some type of custom interlocking connectors?
From the cutaways, it looks like they're inserting their "coils" into a grid of holes cut into 2 pieces of firmer foam.
If you could figure out how to do this well, it could make it easy to upsize or downsize if you decided you wanted to switch to a different mattress size.
https://preview.redd.it/ctge3j2r1h7e1.png?width=1017&format=png&auto=webp&s=c403b371c3d895f6572d7ff7feffc754066e379c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJ4dDCEXZQ&t=16s
