Posted on 08/30/2018 8:29:11 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Marines have used a specialized 3D concrete printer to print a 500-square-foot barracks room in just 40 hours. The innovative project created the worlds first continuous 3D-printed concrete barracks, according to the Marine Corps.
The barracks room was built earlier this month at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Champaign, Ill. Army and Navy Seabees were also involved in the construction effort.
Harnessing the worlds largest concrete printer, the Additive Manufacturing Team at Marine Corps Systems Command teamed up with Marines from I Marine Expeditionary Force.
Using Computer Aided Design software on a 10-year-old computer, the concrete was pushed through a print head and layered repeatedly to build the barracks room walls. Friedell said that the job took 40 hours because Marines were carefully monitoring the project and continually filling the printer with concrete. However, if a robot was used to do the mixing and pumping, the building could be built in 24 hours, he added.
The construction industry is keen to tap into the power of 3D-printing. Last year, for example, experts at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands produced the worlds first 3D-printed reinforced, pre-stressed concrete bridge. The cycle bridge is part of a new road around the village of Gemert in southern Holland.
One of the big advantages of 3D-printed concrete is that much less concrete is needed compared to the traditional technique of filling a mold with concrete, according to experts from Eindhoven University of Technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Mud/Dirt daubers have been doing it for millions of years...............
20 X 25 in 40 hrs? Nice start, but a crew can erect precast slabs and trusses in an 8 hr day.
They’ll need to slick up the printing process to compete.
heh, well, YEAH. But we can still kill em all!
Be harder to do when Marines are inside!
500 square feet is marginal at best for a barracks. Maybe senior NCO quarters, six or so occupants.
“Gee whiz for the sake of gee whiz.”
not really ... simply the first evolutionary phase of much more sophisticated and automated equipment ... just think of this like it was the first horseless carriage that had a little internal IC engine attached to the axle ...
This is a very modest structure, about 22 feet square, about the size of a two car garage. A human crew could build a stronger structure of the same dimensions in the same amount of time easily. A trained crew that reused the forms could do it in half the time or better.
Might be more protective while its still wet.....
When the military is using the technology to make a demonstration 'barracks,' it is gee whiz for gee whiz's sake.
When university or private research institutions, or small start-up companies are demonstrating this technology, that is your horseless carriage with a small IC engine. That sort of research is essential to develop the technology to a practical level for widespread use.
I'm not against progress or technology. I'm against blatant impractical 'demonstrations' from potential end users designed to give a false impression, when the technology is clearly not ready.
No reinforcing steel, no aggregate in the cement, every layer is a cold joint.
Any pressure testing of this type of work?
Er, why do you require Mexicans?
By Beth McKenna, June 22, 2017
3D printing stocks are having a great 2017, after several very tough years. The stocks of the two largest players, 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) and Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS), for example, have gained 66.3% and 66.6%, respectively, this year through June 19, versus the S&P 500's 10.7% return.
Investors who are interested in 3D printing stocks but don't want to bet on just one player or even a couple of companies, have another option: a 3D-printing exchange-traded fund (ETF). We're going to explore the best (and only, to my knowledge) ETF focused on this space, The 3D Printing ETF (NYSEMKT:PRNT), to see if it's worth investing in.
A wire lathe is integrated between printed passes.
(I worked on the project).
Odd, none of the photos in post 13 show any lathe much less rebar being placed or even anywhere in the tent enclosure. How did that work? We miss something?
Seriously, that thing is smaller than a Quonset hut.
Everything you said here 2x.
The tech has amazing potential. The ‘barracks’ is a joke.
You didn't miss a thing.
Those photos/gifs are not the same project!
Are they gonna hump that printer to the forward bases?
Ahh, well....that explains it .
” When the military is using the technology to make a demonstration ‘barracks,’ it is gee whiz for gee whiz’s sake.
When university or private research institutions, or small start-up companies are demonstrating this technology, that is your horseless carriage with a small IC engine. That sort of research is essential to develop the technology to a practical level for widespread use.”
so, in other words, the military is neither allowed to test emerging technology nor to research improvements to it because that’s just “gee whiz’s sake” ...
be nice if it could print some rebar at the same time
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