Black Buffalo 3D Corporation (BB3D) has been awarded the gold Global Innovation award at The Nationals, presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The award is in recognition of providing the first 3D printed construction solution to comply with the International Code Council Evaluation Service’s (ICC-ES) standards for structural walls – ICC-ES AC509. The NAHB Global Innovation award recognizes the most advanced and cutting-edge original products, services, homes, communities, and champions of the building industry, worldwide. This year had the largest pool of applicants, with over 70 companies competing for the Gold Award.
Black Buffalo 3D was selected for its commitment to providing code-approved, large-scale 3D concrete printers, ink materials, and training to allow builders, developers, and contractors to improve upon and supplement traditional building methods with 3D printing for construction. Its achievement of being the first company to meet ICC-ES AC509 criteria provides evidence that structures printed with Black Buffalo NEXCON printers and Planitop 3D mortar/ink can be considered the equivalent of building with CMU block with the advantage of greater efficiency, design freedom, automation, and speed. This is a significant milestone for the future of the construction industry and one of the necessary steps to increase legitimacy among peers in the construction and home building industry.
Manufacturing on Demand
“Black Buffalo 3D recognized early on that standardization would be the key to adoption. To date, every 3D printed construction project has been a one-off exception or relied upon methods of traditional coding to be approved”, said Peter Cooperman, Interim CMO at Black Buffalo 3D. “Our goal in focusing so heavily on R&D, field and lab testing our technology is to move beyond pilots and see 3D construction printing technology become integrated with traditional construction projects globally.”
BB3D partnered with MAPEI Corporation to develop a proprietary 3D construction ink mix, Planitop 3D, that could consistently print high-quality walls in many different environmental conditions. The mix is the result of years of research, testing, and evaluation by engineering and R&D teams from both companies. It provides a durable, repeatable, and consistent result that requires minimal effort on the job site – contractors simply add water and begin printing structural walls.
“We congratulate Black Buffalo 3D on the NAHB Global Innovation award,” said Luigi Di Geso, President and CEO of MAPEI Corporation. “This industry recognition underscores a fact that we’ve known all along – that this 3D printing system developed by MAPEI and Black Buffalo 3D is industry-changing. The only 3D mortar/ink to be ICC-ES AC509 certified, walls that are printed with MAPEI’s Planitop 3D and Black Buffalo 3D NEXCON printers can be considered equivalent to concrete masonry units (CMU) block. This is a huge shift in construction trends and will allow us to help address the scarcity of low-income housing in an innovative, efficient, and affordable manner.“
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The University of Bologna hosts metal 3D printing summer course: The objective of the Summer School is to train young researchers, students, and professionals interested in new construction technologies – focussed on large-scale metal 3D printing. In particular, the topics will cover the basic aspects such as the characterization of the printed specimens, the guidelines to be adopted for the design, and the structural optimization.
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Author: Edward Wakefield
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