Scalable Additive Manufacturing Solution for Construction (2018-07)¶

Additive manufacturing (AM), popularly known as ‘3D printing’, is a manufacturing technique that builds physical 3D objects layer by layer using materials such as polymers, metals, and cementitious composites. The widespread popularity of additive manufacturing in most industries ranging from biomedical to aerospace suggests a revolution in manufacturing which have recently emerged to the construction sector. Considered as the future of construction, AM is used in 3D concrete printing due to its benefits in reducing the waste and contributing towards circular economy goals through the use of recovered waste materials from demolition sites. This paper proposes a scalable additive manufacturing system for the construction sector which pursues an eco-innovative approach to reduce cost and time while increasing quality and versatility in building a 3D structure. The proposed solution involves designing and developing two subsystems that form a robotic AM platform. These two systems consist of a positioning system where a robotic arm is implemented in addition to a nozzle system for extrusion the concrete with precision, which enables the achievement of complex geometries.