3D printer uses paper as ink

One excellent aspect of this is that you don't need to add structural support while printing, something required with resin or plastic. I wonder though what the impact could be on the accuracy of the products, caused by margin of error in paper thickness.

This solid model was created using a 3D printer - no folding required. 

Most 3D printers work by laying down layers of a resin or heated plastic material to gradually render a 3D object created by a 3D modeling program. But Mcor Technology's Matrix 3D printer uses paper as the "ink." The technology is a greener way to build 3D prototypes than plastic-jet printers and other 3D printing technologies, and for design shops that keep their 3D printers busy, operating costs can be substantially lower. 

Mcor, based in Ireland, has been selling the technology in Europe since 2008, but just began marketing it in the U.S. last year. So far, McCormack says, the company has placed a few hundred machines with architects and product design engineers and is hoping it will catch on in the U.S. as a greener, and lower-cost alterative to the traditional 3D printing technologies. 

How it works 

Mcor Technologies' Matrix 3D printer builds an object, such as the model airplane shown above, one sheet at a time. It interleaves sheets of everyday office printer paper with layers of an adhesive that binds them. As the object rises up from the print surface (it takes 10 sheets of paper to build up 1 millimeter of height), tungsten carbide blades sculpt away excess paper that is not part of the design, creating a finished object up to 400 cubic inches in size. 

Objects can be rendered in color by varying the color in the paper bin.

 This 3D printer uses paper as the ink (ComputerWorld)