Manufacturing05 / 08

Construction Technology

3D-printed structures, printer supply and installation

4: capabilities
5: stages
4: deliverables

Overview

Construction 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.

This is a service. Delivery and consulting as a service. Construction printers themselves are equipment, and live in Shop.

Construction printers

What it does

Four things this division does

Printed structures

Wall systems and structural elements printed on site or in the yard, coordinated with conventional trades.

Who it is for

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

How work moves

From brief to delivery,
in five stages

01
Feasibility
Where it starts
02
Mix design
Stage 2
03
Commission
Stage 3
04
Print
Stage 4
05
Handover
Where it ends

What you receive

At the end of the job

A feasibility reportWhat the site and the scheme allow, what it costs, and where printed construction is and is not the right answer.
A qualified mix designTested against locally sourced aggregate, with results rather than a supplier datasheet.
Commissioned equipmentInstalled, calibrated and proven on a test print, with the operating crew trained on it.
The printed structureWall systems or structural elements, coordinated with the trades that follow.

The practical detail

In numbers

3 to 6 weeks: Feasibility stage
4 to 8 weeks: Mix qualification
2 to 3 weeks on site: Commissioning
Included: Operator handover
United States, Kenya: Markets served
Feasibility call: Engagement start

Questions

Asked before commissioning

Answered here, so the first call can start further along.

Still have a question?Ask the team that runs the machines.

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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.

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