Propeller made by printing metal onto pipe

In 2025, we have been hosting Bastien Deprez, an engineering student from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) Hauts-de-France. Bastien has been working with Continuous3D software to build metal parts using advanced 3D printing techniques.

His focus has been on wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) and laser metal deposition—two powerful methods for printing metal. In this video, you’ll see an example using laser: three blades were added to a steel pipe, layer by layer. It’s a non-planar build that required precise coordination between a robot holding a laser and a rotator holding the pipe.

Using the 4 kilowatt fibre laser at CSIRO, stainless steel powder was melted and deposited to form the blades. This project highlights the flexibility of Continuous3D—it can print onto all kinds of surfaces, not just flat ones!