3D CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Construction is one of the largest industries in the world economy. But nowadays, the construction industry is facing a number of serious problems, including low labour efficiency and high accident rates at construction sites. According to the World Statistics, the construction industry has the highest rate of work-related injuries (59 per 1000 workers).
There are also difficulties in quality control at construction sites, high levels of waste and carbon emissions, cost blow-outs, and challenges in managing large worksites with a vanishing skilled workforce.
Disruptive technologies such as 3D printing can offer solutions.
3D printing has been one of the fastest growing technologies in the world presently. It is a manufacturing process that can be used to create physical objects based on digital designs. This is done by using an additive process in which an object is created by a physical machine that prints layer after layer of material until the object is completed.
The concept of 3D printing has evolved since the 1980s but not many researches has been focused on the concrete 3D printing technologies.
In the construction industry, 3D printing can be used to create construction components or to 'print' entire buildings.
Rather than the photopolymer resin used in most 3D printing, the industrial-sized printers for construction projects use other materials, the most common being – concrete.
Concrete 3D printing could be used in many ways in the construction industry. One option is to print elements in the factory, after which they are transported to the construction sites and assembled. Another option is to set up the printer on a construction site where the structure is printed in elements on the site and assembled together, or directly print the structure on site. It should be noted that this practice is based on the printing of vertical elements by placing materials horizontally in layers on top of each other.
Nowadays two types of printers are currently in use in the Industry. The first type is a framed printer. This kind of printer would fit only in factories because it is very difficult to transport and assemble this kind of printers.
The second type of printer is a non-framed concrete printer. It is a robotic printing arm mounted on a vehicle. This kind of printer can be easily transported and does not require flat ground, unlike the framed printer.
There are many benefits of concrete 3D printing. It can be used to produce homes for people that lost their homes in an unfortunate natural disaster, create cheap homes for the homeless, and handle geometries that would be difficult for traditional construction techniques to handle.
Aside from high build speed, another benefit of concrete 3D printing is that nearly no material is wasted during the production process, making it more environmentally friendly than traditional techniques. Using locally available materials will reduce the cost of production of elements and overall cost of the project.
There are several companies in the world actively use modern 3-D construction technologies, such as: Winsun Projects- China, CyBe Construction- Netherlands,
Apis Cor- Russia, 3D Printhuset- Denmark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
3D printed houses are a glimpse into the future of construction. Construction 3D printing may allow, faster and more accurate construction of complex or bespoke items as well as lowering labour costs and producing less waste. It might also enable construction to be undertaken in harsh or dangerous environments not suitable for a human workforce such as in space.
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