April 1, 2014
Back in 2011, University of Southern California Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis said new technology will soon allow massive 3D printers to build entire multi-level houses in under a day.
A group of 3D printed houses, 200 m2 each, recently appears in Shanghai, China. These building were created entirely out of concrete using a gigantic 3D printer, and each costs only 30,000 RMB ($4,800).
The company behind these 3D printed building, Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co, said it has for years been working on developing the system and its materials. The company owns 77 national patents of construction materials, such as glass fiber reinforced gypsum and special glass fiber reinforced cement.
While Hobbyist models of 3D printers are currently available for only a few hundred dollars and lets users feed plastics and polymers into a machine, the company takes this technology to a bigger level. Using concrete, instead of plastic, WinSun wants to revolutionize the way homes and other structures are built.
WinSun's 150(L) x 10(W) x 6.6(H) m gigantic 3D printer is capable of printing entire building within hours. The 'ink' it used is based on high-grade cement and glass fiber. Like traditional 3D printers, the system carefully spills out those materials layer by layer, consistently building upward.
Using computer and 3D modeling software, the designs of the building can also take into account additions like insulation materials, plumbing, electrical lining and windows, which can then be easily outfitted once the rest of the structure is solid and standing.
In addition, it is very impressive that the printing material is recycled construction waste, industrial waste and tailings. WinSun plans to build 100 recycling factories in the country, one in every 300km, to collect and transform the waste into materials for 3D printing through special handling, processing and separation technology. "There will not be any waste from the construction of new buildings." said WinSun CEO Ma YiHe. WinSun expects 3D printing will save construction companies up to 50% on the cost.
WinSun hopes their 3D printer and technology could offer "affordable and dignified housing" for the impoverished.
Chinese company prints parts for ten houses and builds them all in one day
14 hours ago by Bob Yirka
Credit: 3ders.org(Phys.org) —Shang Hai company WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co. has advanced the science of 3D printing by printing all of the parts needed to construct houses and then using those parts to build ten houses, all in just a single day. The finished houses are made of mostly concrete with other materials added for various purposes.
3D printing has become rather commonplace—college students across the country routinely print small objects both for educational purposes and for fun. And while the time may be approaching when most consumers will have a 3D printer in their home for on-demand product creation, the real action appears to be in the construction business. Some have suggested that houses of the future may take just an hour or so to print, reducing labor costs (and thus the cost of the house) to almost nothing. In this new effort, the team in China appears to be making that happen sooner rather than later.
WinSun isn't printing whole houses, instead, the company prints basic parts using concrete (with construction or industrial waste materials or tailing added to help reduce costs) as ink. The parts dry quickly and can then be used to assemble a complete 2,100 square foot house. Purists might argue that the company isn't technically printing houses, but the end result is the same—very little labor, low cost materials, and incredibly inexpensive (approximately $4,800) houses.
The houses built in China are in stark contrast to a project going on in Amsterdam, where a crew has begun work on a project that aims to print an entire 13 room house, including some of the furniture—all in one fell swoop. The timetable is three years and the finished product will likely wind up costing millions.
To print its house parts, WinSun uses a giant printer—it's 490 feet long by 33 feet wide and 20 feet deep—and unlike other companies, plans to use its printer to start printing parts for real houses for sale to consumers. To that end, the company has announced its intention to open 100 recycling factories to convert waste to make it suitable for adding to its concrete ink. Representatives for the country told the press that they believe their system can be used to create a very large number of affordable homes for impoverished people who now cannot afford a traditional house.
Explore further: Amsterdam canal house built with 3-D printer
http://phys.org/news/2014-04-chinese-company-ten-houses-day.html#nwlt
