News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
The world is holding its breath for the outcome of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (scheduled for today in Anchorage, Alaska, at 3:30 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Japanese company Serendix is already looking beyond, at Ukraine’s reconstruction with its 3D printing technology.
HiveASMBLD, a Houston-based automated 3D printed construction company, has partnered with Cole Klein Builders and The City of Houston to create Zuri Gardens, one of the world’s first large-scale affordable housing developments produced using 3D printing technology.
According to Pars Today, researchers at Amirkabir University of Technology, in Iran, have announced two significant innovations—one in the field of 3D printed concrete and another in lithium battery technology—that could have wide-reaching industrial impact.
Since it first began in 1980, the Venice Biennale of Architecture has always been at the cutting edge. Then, the event made waves for being among the first to use unused industrial sites and structures to exhibit art and culture—something that is now common practice and offers a provocative juxtaposition between the exhibition space and the art/installations. Now, the 19th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture is continuing that avant-garde trend by platforming a number of innovative architectural projects that rely on advanced fabrication techniques, like 3D printing.
Züblin, a German construction company, and Instatiq, a research and product development company, are using 3D concrete printing for the production of three apartment buildings for GWG Reutlingen in Metzingen-Neugreuth.
ICON, a 3D printing construction technology company, has released for sale three one-bedroom homes in Austin’s mixed-use, mixed-income Mueller community as part of the Mueller Affordable Homes Program for income-qualified individuals. These resilient, energy-efficient 650 square foot homes will be built alongside nearly a dozen two and three-bedroom 3D printed homes, all designed by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture.
Shanghai’s XISUI Design has created a 3D printed concrete playground in China’s Shandong Province. The 13,000-square-meter Boulder Park blends natural boulders with looming, contoured 3D printed structures that function as a rock cave adventure area.
Italian company WASP has become known for its 3D printing hardware, particularly its clay and cement printing platforms that have unlocked numerous creative projects, like a sensory garden and coral reef modules. Some may not know, however, that the company has since its early days been driven by a utopian dream of building Shamballa, a place where 3D printing could be used to build community and provide the fundamentals to human life: housing, food, healthcare, energy, employment and culture.
Western Australia has reached a significant national milestone in construction innovation with Contec Australia completing the country’s first multi-storey 3D printed concrete home. This project also marks the first of its kind in Perth. As WA’s only operational 3D concrete printing company, Contec Australia used mobile robotic technology to print the full structural walls of the Tapping home in just 18 hours of active printing time. The entire two-storey build, from the laying of the slab to final completion, was achieved in only five months.
In a major advancement for nuclear construction, the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in partnership with Kairos Power and Barnard Construction, has developed and validated large-scale 3D-printed polymer composite forms. These are used to cast complex concrete structures for Kairos Power’s Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor, now under construction at their Oak Ridge campus.