How 3D Printing is Revolutionizing the Construction Industry

Sep 25, 2015
3D Printing in construction Industry

The magical touch of 3d printing is revolutionizing every industry, and the construction industry is no exception to these supernatural transformations brought about in absolutely disbelieving ways. If you thought building castles in the air belongs to realm of proverbs and sayings, it’s time to sit up and see how it stands to be translated into reality. Thanks to this technology, all that it might now take to build a custom villa is the press of a button. A Chinese construction company has shown the world the way by 3D printing a two-story villa in less than 3 hours. The company got the pre-constructed components printed in a factory, which it later lifted and assembled at the site. In January this year, a Shanghai-based company built the world’s tallest 3D printed building, a five story high villa with the help of gigantic 3D printers, measuring 21 feet in height and matching a basketball court in width.

3D Printing is the Future of Construction

3D printing is the future of construction because it opens up construction to a whole new realm of designing possibilities. The biggest advantage effected by this technology is the freedom to replace rectilinear forms with curvilinear forms. It was known, since ages, that structures with no straight edges has the strongest structural design possible, but architects had no clue to implement it. With 3D printing, the possibility of using optimized geometries in common structures has become wide open.

The other big advantage is that structural components made via 3D printing uses less material than that using the normal techniques. Additionally, the structure components can be kept hollow, thereby allowing space for essential building services within the structural elements of the building. It is precisely because of this that the structures are incredibly light and can be carried about by hand. Strength wise, even the home printed prototypes of the components are able to withstand every types of duress tests it is subjected to.

An equally big advantage of this technology is its potential to cut down the costs of construction significantly. This is possible because it replaces certain parts of a number of labor intensive trades such as builders’, plumbers and electricians. Further, it gives construction companies the freedom to create their own prototype products, bypassing costly parts procured from heavy manufacturing industries. It is because of this that the 3D printed homes cost the Chinese company just £300 per square meter to build, a jaw dropping price compared to an average price of £3,600 per square meter retail price of apartments in China today.

What all this means is that the buildings of the future will look much different than those of today – it would be more aesthetically more appealing and at the same time low-costing.