News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Danish construction 3D printer company COBOD, the current segment leader in Europe, recently entered the US market via a partnership with Printed Farms in Florida. The company is now expanding its footprint in the US to address the widespread lack of affordable housing in partnership with the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity. In US market COBOD will be squaring off with current local leader ICON.
The Block Research Group at ETCH Zurich is working with Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design Group (ZHACODE), incremental3D and Holcim to build the Striatus 3D concrete printed masonry bridge, in time for the Venice Biennale exhibit.
Texas-based construction 3D printing company ICON has once again upgraded its Vulcan system. The next-gen 3D printer was announced in parallel to a new 3D printed home initiative—the Exploration Series—which ICON is working on in collaboration with various world-class architects. We’ve got our first glimpse of the inaugural build of the series, House Zero, which is designed by Texas firm Lake|Flato Architects.
Big Sun Holdings Group, Inc. (BSH), the parent of construction 3D printing company Black Buffalo 3D, formed a long-term strategic financing partnership with Ethos Asset Management. Ethos, a private project financing provider with global operations, has committed to providing long-term capital to support Big Sun Holdings’ role as the global accelerator for all products, services, and values in the U.S. on behalf of HN, Inc.–formerly Hyundai BS&C Co. Ltd.
The Technical University Delft (TU Delft) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have partnered with Vertico to use its cutting-edge technology to print future underground habitats on Mars. The subsurface structures are part of a project led by Associate Professor and Leader of Robotic Building Henriette Bier at the TU Delft and funded by the ESA.
The 3D printed gradient furniture collection is Philipp Aduatz’s latest project in the field of 3D concrete printing, in collaboration with Austrian manufacturer Incremental3D.
The Austrian startup Printstones has been developing mobile robotic systems for 3D printing since 2017. After completing more than 100 pilot projects the young firm has now revealed a new prototype: Baubot. This new robot has a modular design approach and is open to external inputs for innovation. The stated goal of the tech company is to bring any tool into any location and utilize it there. This means that 3rd parties can develop and add their tools and applications to the mobile robot. Developers can use an SDK as an interface to the robot’s functionality.
Danish robot 3D construction printer company COBOD International A / S, which produces large 3D printers for robot printing of buildings and wind turbine towers in concrete, submitted the financial accounts for 2020, which show that COBOD fiscal 2020 results generated profits of 9.3 million DKK (about €125,000), being profitable for the second year in a row after growing almost 100% (from 4.9 million DKK, about €65,000).
Printed Farms is the first organization in the United States to get a Cobod Bod 2 Concrete 3D Printer. I got the chance to check out a job site of theirs near West Palm Beach, Florida. This project is a 30×30 agricultural building that will ultimately serve as storage for equipment that the owner has to manage their many horse stables.
A team of undergraduate students from 10 colleges and universities across the United States – members of the Artemis Generation designed a reusable landing pad that could be 3D printed from materials found on the Moon. The novel concept – called the Lunar Plume Alleviation Device, or Lunar PAD – focuses on solving the problems caused when the force of an engine’s powerful exhaust meets the dusty lunar surface.