News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Printed Farms, known for – among others – completing Florida’s first permitted 3D printed house in Tallahassee, successfully completed the world’s largest 3D printed building, a luxury horse barn. Printed Farms used COBOD’s BOD2 construction 3D printer for the job.
Texas A&M University at Qatar, a Qatar Foundation partner university, recently organized a training program focusing on 3D printing concrete structures for engineers working for the Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’. The training, which was organized by the university’s Office of Advancement, was part of the mechanical engineering program’s initiative in smart and sustainable manufacturing. It was held in partnership with Al Jaber Trading and Contracting.
Apsuja Infratech, a Hyderabad-based leading construction company, has partnered with Simpliforge Creations, a 3D printing construction company, to create the world’s first 3D printed place of worship – more than a year ahead of Dubai’s plan to 3D print a mosque – in the form of a Hindu temple. Situated within Charvitha Meadows, at Burugupally, Siddipet, Telangana, India, the 3D printed temple serves as a testament to the harmonious integration of technology and nature with sustainability.
A groundbreaking initiative to rebuild Ukraine has commenced in Lviv, Ukraine, where the humanitarian foundation Team4UA, together with the Danish 3DCP Group using COBOD’s BOD2 printer, have completed the 3D printing of a building that will be used as a school, the first such project in Europe.
Barberio Colella Architetti (Maurizio Barberio and Micaela Colella) + Angelo Figliola, and Zheng Hui Chen designed a new footbridge to be installed over the Fuxi River in Moganshan Town, China. The project named Flowin’, set to be completed in 2023, will use robotically 3D printed thermoplastic formwork and 13 cubic meters of ECOPact concrete material from Holcim.
Obayashi Corporation, one of Japan’s leading construction companies, has reported the completion of its 3D printed demonstration building, named ‘3dpod’ – a project that started in May 2022. 3dpod is a distinct type of structure that has been approved by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism under the Building Standards Act, in Japan. This reportedly marks its status as the first-ever building in the country to be constructed using 3D printers with cement-based materials.
According to Digital Building Technologies, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) have developed a 3D printer designed to transform large quantities of stone waste from quarries into customizable architectural elements. The stone waste, or rock flour, in places like Ticino, can constitute up to 40% of total production. The printer was demonstrated in a case study, where it fabricated an optimized floor system using the byproduct of a marble quarry in Ticino.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has completed South Africa’s first-ever 3D printed building, thanks to a collaborative effort between UJ’s Department of Architecture and Design and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). Utilizing a CyBe Robot Crawler and a cement-based material, the one-room structure was printed on UJ’s Doornfontein, Johannesburg, campus, in under eight hours.
Siam Cement Group (SCG), the largest and oldest cement and building material company in Thailand and Southeast Asia, has completed the first two-story 3D printed building in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – in the form of a medical center. The center boasts a total floor area of 345m², is located in Saraburi, Thailand, and was constructed using a COBOD BOD2 3D concrete printer.
PERI 3D Construction, a pioneer in 3D construction printing, is currently using a COBOD BOD2 3D construction printer to print the walls of Europe’s largest 3D printed building. The project was initiated by KRAUSGRUPPE, a project developer, builder, investor, real estate manager, and broker in Heidelberg, Germany. The building is being built for Heidelberg IT Management GmbH & Co. KG, a cloud and data center provider.