Posted on 11/08/2013 7:25:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Could 3D printing help solve the world's shelter crises?
At a TED talk in Ojai, Calif., Behrokh Khoshnevis, director of the Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Southern California, said nearly 1 billion people in the world dont have access to adequate shelter, a situation that breeds poverty, disease, illiteracy, crime and overpopulation. To address this problem, Khoshnevis is developing a process called Contour Crafting to use 3D printing technology to build entire houses.
Khoshnevis said the giant 3D printers his team is developing can build a 2,500-square-foot house in as little as 20 hours. The Contour Crafting 3D printers could even do the electrical work, plumbing, tiling, finishing work and painting.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
That may sound too good to be true, but Khoshnevis showed a video demonstrating prototypes of massive 3D printers in action. With a nozzle that secreted a dense, high-performance concrete, the 3D printer erected a wall layer by layer. The walls are hollow to save on materials and make them lighter, but their strength clocks in at about 10,000 psi -- more than traditional housing walls, Khoshnevis said.
The buildings dont have to be linear, he pointed out. To make the buildings structurally sound as well as beautiful, the 3D printers can print curves....
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
I dont know where youd get the raw materials, maybe a space elevator, or launching them up with a rail gun.
This is why there are asteroids, which are also not at the bottom of our gravity well.
That’s gotta take alot of glu sticks ...
Now I cant get that Melanie song; Brand New Key, written by Neil Young by the by, out of my head. I’ll have to let it start and completely finish on it’s own.
“I dont know where youd get the raw materials . . .”
The asteroid belt if cock full of raw material.
Wish I could find the video from a year or two ago showing a working model printing a full size house. Have any of you seen that?
This sounds like the industrial grade replicators from Star Trek
I read a book called Armor while still in high school(early 80’s) that included this exact idea. They used the soil and glue to form walls for a fort while attemting to defeat an alien enemy. Hard to tell where the original idea came from but its been around for awhile. The tech is only now catching up to the idea.
“Heinlein used to write about how primitive our building technology was. Compared how much a car would cost if you brought the raw steel, rubber etc to your house and built the car there.”
So true. The old trailer homes made a bad name for mobile homes, but many of the newer ones are just as good as a house if you put them on a solid foundation. 2x6 framing, thick drywall, good quality doors and windows, real tile, wood floors, granite countertops, etc. When we were looking into it, they were still about 30% less than a framed house.
i got a brand new pair of roller skates
I used to have a key
cool! wonder is he need to make a demo somewhere;-
)
“I like the way they make the walls hollow. That leaves room for spray foam insulation.”
And wires and pipe, too.
“You,could probably build such a house in an American city for about $50,000 or so.”
You don’t suppose unions and bureaucrats will want their cut, do you?
There has historically been huge resistance to alternate construction technologies and methods.
Traditional site oriented capenters resisted modular off-site fabrication, since decades ago for example.
The video is fascinating, and doable. The guy is an Iranian, good with construction. His example of dealing with earthquakes is interesting, too.
Old but good technology, for an age old problem.
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth a liver and endless , I’ll think of something.
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