News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
About a year ago, the U.S. Army announced a pilot program to 3D print a series of barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas with the aim of improving living conditions for soldiers and enhancing overall readiness. Now, the 3D printed barracks, which span 5,700 square feet, are complete, making them the largest 3D printed structures in the Western Hemisphere.
The Texas Military Department (TMD) has opened its new, 2,600+ square foot 3D printed Training and Innovation Center at Camp Mabry. The Innovation Center will be part of TMD’s Joint Force Headquarters and will enable collaboration and planning with TMD and external partners on future innovation and modernization efforts. Over the past few months, TMD Service Members, along with 3D construction printing company ICON, designed and constructed the 3D printed Innovation Center.
ICON, known for 3D printing homes and communities in Mexico and central Texas, has been prototyping various structures with DIU (the Defense Innovation Unit) and USMC utilizing the technology that combines 3D robotics, software and advanced material. In January 2019, Marines were trained on the software, robotics and material delivery sub-systems at ICON’s lab with the goal of a future field demonstration to build structures important for expeditionary construction.
Marines from Marine Corps Systems Command and 7th Engineer Support Battalion, along with engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, conducted the first known 3D concrete printing operation with a three-inch print nozzle at the CERL headquarters in early August in Champaign, Illinois.
The Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois, has successfully three-dimensionally printed a 512 square-foot concrete structure. The structure, called a barracks hut or B-Hut, was printed as a result of a three year Army Program called ACES, “Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures.” It uses an additive manufacturing process to “print” semi-permanent structures in a theater of operation. The ability to use concrete sourced from readily available materials reduces logistical requirements for the U.S. Army.