Material Development Standards and Methods for Additive Manufacturing in Construction to Meet Building Code Requirements for Certification (2020-11)¶

A major challenge of applying additive manufacturing (AM) to regulated industries is that the resulting printed material(s) have to meet the requirements of those particular applications. Unfortunately, for many novel applications of AM, there are not yet standards in place to provide a framework for ensuring those requirements are met. The construction industry has very high standards for materials and methods of manufacturing—for example, one- or two-hour fire ratings and low thermal conductivity. Traditional buildings, structures, and building components include an exterior member, an interior member, and a plurality of cross members between them where each member is formed with different materials that should perform together as one system or subsystem. With AM, the volumetric building or building component can be formed from a multi layer stack of three-dimensionally printable material designed with fire rating, thermal conductivity, and other requirements in mind. Such printed structures can be monolithically integrated, which is a significant advantage for materials with low thermal conductivity as it allows the elimination of dozens of manufacturing and assembly operations used in traditional buildings. An outer surface region of such a printed structure can form the final surface finish, either by itself or with some overlying finish or a protective layer added. The structure can have cavities for a fill material deposited into openings between the exterior and interior members. Large-scale three-dimensional printing machines should be equipped with sensors and logging systems to ensure the quality and consistency of the printing process. This paper explores the use of AM in the construction of buildings and proposes a model for ensuring quality starting at the point of material development and continuing through to completion—the purpose of which is to create greater efficiency and uptake in the novel use of AM in construction and other highly regulated industries.