This article is part of a blog series in which you can find out how 3D printing is used on construction sites, such as by replacing broken parts on construction equipment or even building new houses. We have all heard the buzz around 3D printing in the last ten years but is it merited?

Market growth in the Americas is predicted to be supported by the increasing focus of the US and Canadian governments on the development of industrial, energy, and infrastructure sectors. The increasing use of 3D printing to construct infrastructure such as bridges, using materials like metals, plastic, and composite, will drive the segments’ growth.

Initiatives in 3D printing

3D printed bridge in the Netherlands

Various initiatives undertaken by key companies worldwide to build 3D-printed bridges are growing.

For instance, the world's first largest and longest concrete 3D-printed bridge was 29 meters long and opened on September 8th, 2019.

The architect, Michiel van der Kley, made a creative design, following the instructions of the municipality of Nijmegen. It was printed in the Saint Gobain Weber Beamix concrete printing factory. Bureau Witteveen+Bos was responsible for the parametric model’s construction and Summum Engineering was the technical engineer. It was built by the BAM construction group.

Bas Huysmans, CEO of Saint Gobain Weber Benelux said:

This 3D production technique delivers savings of up to 50 percent in materials because the printer only deposits concrete where it is needed for structural strength. 3D technology is maturing and is becoming a serious option for faster, more sustainable, and cheaper construction of bicycle and pedestrian bridges.

Theo Salet, Professor of Concrete Structures at TU Eindhoven said:

The printing of concrete has enormous growth potential. We use less raw materials and can drastically increase the construction speed. In the future, we want to make concrete more sustainable and reuse it. There is much more to achieve. I am also proud that the knowledge developed has quickly found its way to the industry.

Is there a future for 3D printing in construction?

3D printed house model

3D printing in construction has real enduring potential and cannot be ignored.

Imagining that one day it will be the only technology used in construction, is difficult, but it will certainly become a state-of-the-art solution that will bring many benefits. It offers cost savings and is eco-friendly for the future of construction.

3D-Printing is accelerating automation

New solutions will be discovered thanks to 3D printing, but they will also meet challenges due to the very nature of the construction industry.

New possibilities are constantly developed by architects around the world using the latest 3D-printed prototypes. So, we can be sure that the future is here to stay.

For instance, ICON is pioneering large-scale 3D printing, and has announced a new residential development of 3D-printed homes at Wimberley Springs, in Texas, United States. The project includes 8 single-family homes. The houses, currently under construction and available for sale, leverage ICON’s robotic technologies to create an energy-efficient, low-carbon construction process.

ICON claims it can build the entire wall system of a home, two to three times faster than a traditional home, and at up to 30% of the cost, the wall system includes mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.

Around the world, partnerships are forming to automate the construction of homes, offices, and other structures through techniques like 3D printing, robotic finishing, and automated bricklaying.

Governments and investors increase their support to help the automation of the construction industry. This mitigates the risks of low efficiency due to waste, sustainability, and labor shortage, the main causes of the slow construction of new houses which alarmingly increases house prices towards unaffordability.

Examples of 3D printing initiatives

Eric Holt, assistant professor at the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver said the ball has moved quickly.

ICON’s Initiative 99, aims to promote affordable home designs that can be built for under $99,000. One of the winning projects will use ICON’s 3D printing technologies. The name of the project is “Housing Salinas,” it focuses on community living promoting long-term sustainability, and social and environmental responsibility.

Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis at the University of California has developed a process to build the walls of a house in 24 hours.

Shanghai firm WinSun Decoration Design Engineering has used large 3D printers to spray a mixture of quick-drying cement and recycled raw materials to construct 10 small demonstration 'houses' in less than 24 hours.

Spain saw the first 3D-printed pedestrian bridge in the world (3DBRIDGE). It was inaugurated on 14 December 2016 in the urban park of Castilla-La Mancha in Alcobendas, Madrid. The bridge has a total length of 12m and a width of 1.75m and is printed in micro-reinforced concrete.

An alternative approach to 3D printing for the fabrication of buildings is presently in development and is called the 2D 'WikiHouse' project. WikiHouse is not an additive process, but an open-source set of construction data for building components you download to manufacture and assemble locally, frequently used materials and equipment. This is low-tech prefabrication that requires little training. Using SketchUp, you can develop pointed extracts for components to manufacture standard pieces out of a range of materials using a CNC (computer numerical control) machine. The subsequent frames can be constructed and amassed by hand, the cladding panels are attached, and services and windows connected. With this method, you can build a single-story house frame in one day.

Evaluation

You would probably agree that the above projects have a lot of potential to construct better, faster, more environmentally friendly, and lower-cost infrastructure or buildings.

In various parts of the world, systemization in construction is not widely utilized, and when in use, for example, in panelized systems for high-rise apartment blocks in the United Kingdom, they can be boring and ugly, often with problems such as condensation. We have seen a worldwide revitalization of modularization and prefabrication, but the market share is still low.

All of these innovations are capital-intensive as they require complex types of equipment. Technology is evolving so rapidly that we can envisage that less sophisticated equipment will be developed, and their prices will be lowered, as they will be utilized on an industrial scale.

But will it replace more conventional methods of construction? We'll leave that to the market to decide.

Use of new materials

A reusable construction product based on waste sawdust has been developed by researchers in the US as an alternative to concrete.

The University of Michigan’s BioMatters team developed the material. It is 3D printed to create the required biodegradable, reusable, recyclable form.

BioMatters (DART) Laboratory has processed the sawdust to make it the base for their new product solution.

Their approach mixes robotic 3D printing of the wood-based material, with concrete casting, to create zero-waste free-form concrete structures.

In conclusion

As per the market.us report the global 3D market is planned to grow up to $135.4 Billion in 2030 from $19,8 in 2023.

The world has a severe shortage of housing.

The White House says the U.S. claims a housing shortage of about 4 million homes. Houses just can't be built fast enough. China, Europe, and the United Kingdom demand faster, more efficient, and less wasteful construction. 3D printing is no longer restricted to components, we are now printing entire buildings. This is part of the solution to the problem.

Giant 3D printers could make a difference and they have now built the first 3D-printed homes in the U.S.

Throughout the world, big steps in 3D bridge printing have changed the industry within the last five years. These designs use fewer materials to reduce environmental impact. Surely these earliest 3D-printed bridges will continue to inspire future development as the 3D printing industry grows.

3D printing is a more sustainable approach than traditional construction. The use of concrete is still quite a carbon-intensive process.

Companies should include additive manufacturing processes to improve construction automation such as bricklaying and others.

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