News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
A two-story house was 3D printed at Kamp C, the provincial center for sustainability and innovation in construction, in Westerlo, Belgium, using the largest 3D concrete printer available. The house, part of the C3PO project, has an area of ninety square meters and was 3D printed in one piece with a fixed printer. It’s the first such project in the world.
WinSun/Yingchuang, the Chinese – and possibly the global – leader in construction 3D printing is shipping 15 3D printed wards from Suzhou to Pakistan via ocean, to help fight the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus pneumonia is common around the world and Pakistan is now experiencing a severe epidemic situation, with a total of 176,617 cases confirmed, of which 105,224 require medical assistance.
Today, the emerging construction 3D printing sector is being pioneered by a relatively small number of companies, each of which is presenting its own technology and vision for disrupting the global construction industry. Amongst them is CyBe, a Netherlands-based company that has taken an encompassing and holistic approach to construction AM.
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.
Construction 3D printing is booming, with hundreds of new applications emerging all over the world. The variety of solutions sometimes makes it challenging to understand exactly how materials need to behave to enable large structures to be 3D printed. In a recent video published on his channel, Jarett Gross, a Youtuber specializing specifically in this area, explains in a very clear and highly documented manner the rheology of construction 3D printing involved. If you have a direct interest in construction AM, as many of our readers do, or if you are just curious, it’s definitely worth watching.
In yet another fascinating demonstration of the capabilities of construction 3D printing to rebuild marine habitats, architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have jointly developed a novel method for coral restoration making use of specially designed, 3D printed reef tiles. The elegant looking structures can be used by corals to enhance their chance of survival in the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong waters.
There’s a new player in the construction 3D printing market: Mighty Buildings, an Oakland, California-based startup with a focus on automated home building solutions has just progressed beyond stealth mode. The company, which has raised an impressive $30 million from investors (including Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel and CoreVC), was born through the Y Combinator seed money startup accelerator in 2018.
Thinking Huts, a charitable startup founded by an innovative young mind, Maggie Grout, is seeking to use 3D printing to make education more accessible in Madagascar. Specifically, the organization is developing plans for a 3D printed school in the African nation, where 60% of primary-school-aged children are not enrolled. Eventually, it plans to build more schools in developing regions where access to education is limited.
PERI GmbH, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of formwork and scaffold systems, has marked a milestone in its pursuit of advancing construction additive manufacturing. The German company has sold its first BOD2 construction 3D printer (made by COBOD) to German concrete specialist Röser GmbH.
ICON, a construction 3D printing specialist based in Austin, Texas, has raised $35 million through a Series A funding round led by Moderne Ventures. The infusion of capital brings the promising young company’s total investments to $44 million (it raised $9 million in a seed funding round in 2018). The funding will support the company as it continues to develop its 3D printing technology, design and build innovative 3D printed homes and advance its mission to provide cost-efficient and eco-friendly housing.