News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
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.
The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna) has just introduced a three-day Summer School focussed on metal 3D printing in construction, which will be held at the university’s Alma Mater Studiorum, on 4-6 July 2023. The course will cost €350,00, and will be hosted by the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering (DICAM). The application deadline is 15 June 2023.
Applied Research Associates (ARA), a research and engineering firm headquartered in New Mexico, has awarded faculty in the University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering nearly $3.5 million to study the most expedient ways to 3D print horizontal mission structures for the US military, according to the university’s news outlet. The $3.5 million sub-award comes as part of a larger $12 million award ARA received from the United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center.
A recent study by COBOD International has found that there are 129 3D printed buildings spread over 105 distinct construction sites, globally – 40% (51 buildings) of which exist thanks to COBOD’s 3D construction printers. The company with the second highest number of 3D printed buildings is Icon, with 15 3D printed buildings, followed by Winsun, Cybe, and xtreeE – each being responsible for the construction of five 3D printed buildings.
At the recent AM Strategies 2023 conference, in New York, Voxel Matters caught up with Alexey Dubov, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Mighty Buildings – a Californian company that was founded and went through the Y Combinator program in 2018 (W18) that is transforming the way we make homes, using some of the latest manufacturing technologies.