In terms of 3D printing buildings, I simply don't get it. If someone 3D printed a bolt, I would wonder "why didn't you simply go to the hardware store and buy a box of bolts?" We can mass produce bolts very efficiently. Similarly, if you 3D printed a CMU block, I would wonder the same thing--the ability to mass produce CMU blocks already exists.
With buildings, even in the 1990's a single production line could manufacturer 24 homes in an 8-hour shift, fully furnished, conforming to a building code--all you had to do is connect the utilities. Current headlines touting the 3D printing of a concrete home in 24-hours don't seem that remarkable--this is a very long time to complete ONLY the walls. And, it increases the required degree of skill and training in the field--the place where it is often most difficult to find skilled labor.
Don't get me wrong, additive manufacturing has some great benefits or certain parts and products, but it is hard to imagine 3D printing a home in the field. We've had clients that have attempted to roll form steel in the field, on the job site, and failed due to finding skilled labor that will babysit the equipment.
From an affordable housing standpoint, I work in affordable and disaster relief housing. Many have tried to bring new technologies to the industry, but the thing about new technologies, they are very expensive--typically not something that fits within the affordable housing market. Most new building technologies start at the high-end and attempt to work their way down before they go broke (e.g. Tesla).
It seems to be a millennial "thing" to 3D print everything. In a recent college class, I taught, the students printed and built a device that at the end was a glorified cordless Dremel. It cost $500 to make when they could have gone to the local Lowe's (or Amazon) and bought a better version for $50. I'm sure the price of 3D printing will come down, but to compete with the cost of conventional materials will be difficult.
I suggest that anyone truly interested in affordable housing or mass-produced housing review a building production facility and study the current state-of-the-art in order to know how far they must go. And, the state-of-the-art is rapidly changing in-plant with large tech firms getting involved in ventures such as Katerra, Kasita, Z-Modular, BluePrint Robotics. The key difference between these startups and 3D printing--these companies are actually selling buildings today.
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Eric
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-15-2018 11:27
From: Stuart Walesh
Subject: Large-scale 3D printing of precast and cast-in-place concrete
I serve, as one of a group of advisers, for a confidential project with a short-term goal of 3D printing, as a demonstration, another concrete house in the U.S. Based on what I have learned so far (two months), large-scale 3D printing could explode within civil engineering in the next few years, although maybe not in the U.S.
Elon Musk and his crew of engineers land rockets in reverse and reuse them. In the same spirit of creativity/innovation, maybe the U.S. civil/construction engineering community can 3D print, in concrete and other materials, pre-cast components of buildings and other structures and entire buildings and other structures. By "other structures" I mean essentially everything we now do in formed concrete and beyond.
Why try to do it?
* Reduce construction costs (less manual labor, less material, less wasted material, less energy use, etc.)
* Produce structures that are more resistant to natural disasters and terrorism (e.g., use new materials and stronger shapes/configurations)
* Slash prototyping time and fail faster
* Increase construction site safety
* Reduce construction time
* Customize each product
* Produce a whole new set of tech and other jobs (educators-trainers, structure designers, building code experts, programmers/coders, robot designers-manufacturers-transporters-operators-maintainers, finance experts, site acquisition specialists, government regulations/relations personnel, etc.).
*Provide greatly improved affordable housing in the U.S. and around the globe.
I am finding, as I suspect you have, that small 3D printers are showing up everywhere -- in K-12 schools and in universities, in public libraries, in homes, etc. Use of larger 3D printers is taking off in manufacturing. In that sector, it is sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing, in contrast with traditional reductive manufacturing (e.g., milling, turning, boring, etc.).
My hope is that some of you -- maybe "off the top of your head" -- can answer this question: Who, in mostly U.S. engineering academia or practice is studying/teaching/researching/developing large-scale 3D printing within the civil/construction engineering field?
In addition, any thoughts you may have would be appreciated.
Thank you.
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Stuart G. Walesh Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE(Ret.), Dist.M.ASCE, F.NSPE
S.G. Walesh Consulting
219-242-1704
stuwalesh@...
www.HelpingYouEngineerYourFuture.com
Author of Introduction to Creativity and Innovation for Engineers, 2017, Pearson
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