Giant 3D Printer Builds Homes in 20 Hours
Add entire homes to the list of things you can now make using a 3D printer.
Over the past couple of years 3D printing has become more and more impressive, capable of quickly and efficiently creating a large range of objects. But one professor from the University of Southern California has dared to dream even bigger, developing a 3D printing system that could effectively print an entire home in less than a full day.
Called Contour Crafting, the process involves utilizing a gigantic 3D printer that is placed overhead an empty lot where the home will be built. The machine builds walls with multiple layers of concrete, adding plumbing and electrical wiring as it goes and eventually leaves a complete home that only needs doors and windows to complete.
If that wasn't impressive enough, the system can also robotically paint walls or add tiles to the floors. Although Contour Crafting was created with the thought of easy to build, low cost housing in mind, the process can be modified to create luxurious homes or larger buildings. For more information on the project, head on over to the Contour Crafting webpage.
Even though the machines can do more in 20 hours than a whole team of construction workers can do in a week.
And the machine won't demand pay increases 24 hours after signing the building contract.
And then it needs to be disassembled and removed once finished.
And then it needs to be disassembled and removed once finished.
Even though the machines can do more in 20 hours than a whole team of construction workers can do in a week.
And the machine won't demand pay increases 24 hours after signing the building contract.
The idea might work if you took this rig and enclosed it in a huge tub and filled that tub with resin and used a laser to heat up the resin like in a normal 3d printer. But as its designed now its a nice pipe dream but no it wont work for a home.
Such an awesome idea.
Assuming you used pvc for the plumbing and could effectively print that, there is still no suitable substitute for #10/#12 copper used to wire homes today.
The idea is essentially the same thing as thinking you can fly by strapping on a giant pair of wings to your arms and jumping off a cliff. Might look like cool if you've never heard of it before, but in practice it's just ridiculous.
Imagine if one day people start printing cars. The big 3 stay in MI area and the plants around the country that probaly employ about 100k people or more would only need 10% of those worker to maintain and error check machines. Unemplyoment would propably go 40-60%.
A possible faster way: Build per-fabricated material, then have the 3D printer put them together.