News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
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.
PERI 3D Construction is taking 3D construction printing to new dimensions in Europe: the IT server hotel, which the KRAUS GROUP is realizing in Heidelberg, will be about 54 meters long, eleven meters wide and nine meters tall. With the COBOD BOD2 3D printer, PERI will print the vertical elements of the building and using i.tech 3D mortar, a 100% recyclable material from Heidelberg Materials. The special architecture gives insights into the free design that can be easily realized with the 3D printing process. Overall, we expect a pure printing time of only about 140 hours.
As we already well know, NASA is working to build a research base on the moon to send the first astronauts to Mars, and as a result of this, the development of Lunar construction is growing rapidly. A master’s student from the Florida International University (FIU) – Brandon Aguiar – seems to be a promising player within the industry.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have reportedly developed a 3D concrete printing (3DCP) technique that promises better and more environmentally friendly structures, at a lower cost. Architect Mania Aghaei Meibodi and researchers Alireza Bayramvand and Yuxin Lin of the DART lab, at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, have developed a method for creating ultra-lightweight, waste-free concrete. The method reduces weight by 72% compared to conventional, solid concrete of the same size, and is leading to new partnerships and patents beyond the university.