Solutions · Manufacturing
Construction Technology
Large-format construction printing. The structures, the printers that make them, and the commissioning work between owning one and running one.
4
capabilities
5
stage engagement
4
deliverables
ManufacturingConstruction printing is the division where the gap between a demonstration and a working process is widest. Printing a wall is a solved problem in a controlled yard. Printing one on a real site, in real weather, with local aggregate and a crew who have to hand over to conventional trades afterwards, is not.
The work here is mostly what sits either side of the machine. Feasibility and cost modelling before anyone commits. Mix design tested against locally available aggregate, because a mix that performs in Maryland is not the mix that performs in Nairobi. Commissioning and operator handover, so the printer produces rather than waits for a specialist.
The printed structures themselves are the visible output, coordinated with foundations, services and finishing trades that were not designed around a gantry. That coordination is the difference between a printed building and a printed wall with a construction problem attached to it.
Capability
What this division does
Printed structures
Wall systems and structural elements printed on site or in the yard, coordinated with conventional trades.
Printer supply & installation
Specification, delivery, commissioning and operator handover for large-format construction printers.
Materials development
Mix design and testing against local aggregate, because a mix that works in Maryland is not the mix that works in Nairobi.
Consulting
Feasibility, regulatory approach and cost modelling before anyone commits to a machine.
Audience
Who commissions this
Developers evaluating printed construction for a real scheme
Contractors adding large-format printing to their capability
Institutions and NGOs delivering housing at volume
Government and infrastructure programmes assessing feasibility
Process
How the work moves
Feasibility
Mix design
Commission
Handover
Deliverables
What you actually receive
Named artefacts rather than adjectives: the things that exist at the end, and can be checked against this list.
A feasibility report
What the site and the scheme allow, what it costs, and where printed construction is and is not the right answer.
A qualified mix design
Tested against locally sourced aggregate, with results rather than a supplier datasheet.
Commissioned equipment
Installed, calibrated and proven on a test print, with the operating crew trained on it.
The printed structure
Wall systems or structural elements, coordinated with the trades that follow.
Engagement
The practical detail
- Feasibility stage
- 3 to 6 weeks
- Mix qualification
- 4 to 8 weeks
- Commissioning
- 2 to 3 weeks on site
- Operator handover
- Included
- Markets served
- United States, Kenya
- Engagement start
- Feasibility call
Questions
Asked before commissioning
The questions that come up on nearly every enquiry, answered here so the first call can start further along.
Sometimes, and not always for the reasons people expect. The saving is usually in labour and schedule rather than in material, and it only appears at a certain repeat volume. Below that volume conventional construction wins, and the feasibility stage exists to say so honestly before a machine is bought.
That depends entirely on jurisdiction, and it is the first thing the feasibility work establishes. Printed structural elements typically need a specific engineering approval route rather than falling under standard provisions, and finding that out early is much cheaper than finding it out late.
A printable mix has to hold its shape immediately after extrusion and still bond to the layer above it. That behaviour depends on the aggregate, and aggregate is local. Importing a proven mix is rarely economic, so it gets qualified against what is actually available.
Yes, in Shop, and this division does the specification, installation, commissioning and handover around them. Buying the machine without that support is the most common way these projects stall.