"Located in Russia, this 400-square-foot home (37 square meters) was built in just a day, at a cost of just over $10,000... The main components of the house, including the walls, partitions and
building envelope were printed solely with a concrete mixture. Fixtures like windows and furnishings were later added on, and a shiny coat of paint added to the exterior of the house. The house consists of a hallway, bathroom, living room and kitchen."
Note the equipment used in this process is portable. Details and interior photos
here.
Pretty cool, but the design of the house was cheated to maximize the speed which the machine could operate at.
ReplyDeleteNearly all the printers motion was rotary rather than linear. And it had to be removed with a crane (or disassembly)
Concrete towers have been essentially 3d printed for years...
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/Kx2EN3AAxKc?t=17m25s
The entire show is pretty good, by the way. You can back the video up to see exactly why they do this kind of construction.
The problem is materials, concrete needs iron reinforcement, which one cannot print or replace, because it coincidentally matches exactly the heat expansion coefficient of concrete. Now they cite geopolymer concrete and fiber glass reinforcement, which is new ...
ReplyDeleteAnd also I guess the difference between printing and pouring, is that you don't have a mold.