Page 1 - Open-Access-Aug-2020

point of view

Brief overview on

3D ConstruCtion

Printing Werner H. Bittner*

1. IntroductIon time, cost, quality - and applicable building codes. All this can
be very sobering. At different points of history, builders have
Since about 1994, the construction sector generally faces an adopted different construction methods, technologies, and
increasing productivity gap when compared with other classic materials. Buildings are made of either stones, bricks, timber,
manufacturing sectors like equipment manufacturing, the steel structures, poured concrete, concrete precast panels, or
automotive or the aerospace industry. this gap has further other materials or by other techniques. each newly emerged
increased meanwhile and many studies from well-reputed construction technique needs to challenge the conventional
strategy and consultancy firms state this. Not all studies are methods of construction. in other words, only business models
identical, but the bottom line is. are disruptive, technologies alone are never. if there is no
economically striking effect, one typically speaks of “happy
in the author´s view, the reason for this increasing gap is the engineering”.
successful and ongoing implementation of the principles of
standardization, industrialization, automation and - increasingly
– digitalization by firms that are active in the sectors of 2. technologIcal market
mechanical engineering, automotive and aerospace whereas segmentatIon
the overall construction sector has ignored either these From a general perspective, 3D construction printing has
developments or simply hasn´t done its share yet. in addition, three very striking initial benefits. First, 3D printing is a digital
in current times of many break-throughs, new technologies process from the very beginning. no need to digitalize it, it is
combined with striking business models increasingly show digital already. Job done. Second, complexity of design, within
disruptive effects in their markets. in other words, competitors certain boundaries however, does not involve extra effort and
from unexpected angles and industry newcomers with disruptive hence it does not impose additional cost. third, concrete 3D
ideas now threaten major players in the traditional and printing could be a fully automated process mainly monitored
monolithic sectors. by one operator per shift. However, the devil is in the detail, and
therefore, let´s have a look at these details.
Finally, we have arrived at one of these new technologies. it
generally can be addressed as 3d construction Printing. it First of all, let us have a look at all currently available
builds on the idea of layer-by-layer manufacturing, which is the technological approaches in this current niche domain and let´s
unifying characteristic of all 3D printing technologies, regardless try to derive technological market segments from this. From the
of materials involved. A significant number of reports, pictures, author’s perspective, four segments could be identified in this
and articles can be found online with respect to construction 3D space, which are governed by different and distinct rules. these
printing, some of which are very enticing and impressive at the four segments have been listed below in ascending order of
first glance. technological complexity:
it should be mentioned that in this article the discussions are a. construction related artwork
mainly provided from a business standpoint. As such, any new
B. shell component Printing
construction technology should be evaluated using current
benchmarks in terms of construction time, construction cost, and c. shell Printing
quality. it is also important to note the total-cost-of-ownership d. contour crafting
mentality, which is prevailing the real estate and construction
industry. A. construction related artwork: respective applications
deal with either fancy building portals, free form structures,
As soon as any “Wow effect” of new, even spectacular things formwork or art objects of different forms and sizes in and
like 3D Construction Printing, have vaporized, things pretty around buildings that typically are not part of any load bearing
much tend to boil down to this very triangle of competitive building structure. to print this, the main approach is to use

The IndIan ConCreTe Journal | augusT 2020 75
*Corresponding author : Werner H. Bittner, email : whb@umdaschgroup-ventures.com