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3D Printing

3D printing in construction uses a 3D printer that deposits materials like concrete in layers to build structures. This technique can print houses faster and with less waste than traditional methods, but currently only frames and walls can be printed, with other elements needing separate installation. Researchers are working on ways to reinforce printed concrete structures, which is important since concrete is weak in tension and needs reinforcement. Recent studies show fiber reinforcement and rebar translation show promise but more research is still needed to develop fully automated digital construction with reinforcement.

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92 views2 pages

3D Printing

3D printing in construction uses a 3D printer that deposits materials like concrete in layers to build structures. This technique can print houses faster and with less waste than traditional methods, but currently only frames and walls can be printed, with other elements needing separate installation. Researchers are working on ways to reinforce printed concrete structures, which is important since concrete is weak in tension and needs reinforcement. Recent studies show fiber reinforcement and rebar translation show promise but more research is still needed to develop fully automated digital construction with reinforcement.

Uploaded by

alaa
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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3D Printing in Construction

A construction 3D printer is a machine that can build houses by depositing a material


(concrete for example) layer by layer. Concrete 3D printing – a.k.a. “Construction 4.0” –
is a similar 3D printing technology to the one that FFF 3D printers use. Paste-type
material, in this case concrete or earth materials, is pushed through a nozzle in layers to
print buildings in 3D. Concrete 3D printing in the construction industry helps save time,
effort and material compared to traditional construction methods. It’s important to note,
though, that 3D printers are not yet capable of creating a fully functional house.

Only the frame and walls of the house are built; other elements, such as windows,
electricity, or plumbing, need to be installed separately. But concrete 3D printers can also
be used to print bridges, benches, or simply outdoor decorations. There’s been a lot of
hype over 3D-printed concrete buildings, but we tend to forget that these buildings need
to be reinforced. A recent report from the International Association for Shell and Spatial
Structures’ (IASS) 2018 Symposium has concluded that, while there’s no “perfect”
reinforcement for this technology yet, there are several options that show promise.

Concrete is good at handling compression forces, but not particularly good at handling
tension, so it needs to be reinforced with something strong against tension. Traditionally,
that has meant metal rebar and/or plastic or metal fibers (fiber-reinforced concrete). In
this report, a team from Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) and the Shimizu
Corporation’s Institute of Technology discussed and tested some ways to translate those
methods into the realm of 3D-printed concrete.

“Significant progress has been made in non-reinforced concrete printing in the recent
years with research and industrial organizations producing geometrically complex
structures as well as innovative rapid mass-customized buildings,” the researchers note
in their report. “However, the research on incorporating reinforcement into fully
automated digital construction approaches is limited, with the suggested solutions still
being rudimentary.…Since the use of reinforcement is mandatory in most structural
applications, there is an urgent need to bring the technology of reinforcing 3d-printed
structural elements forward.
References:
3D Printing: The Future of Construction. (2019, February 04). Retrieved April 20,
2019, from https://www.3dnatives.com/en/3d-printing-construction-310120184/

The 12 best construction 3D printers in 2019 (April 2019). (n.d.). Retrieved April 20,
2019, from https://www.aniwaa.com/house-3d-printer-construction/

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