Advances Made in Mega Freeform Construction. The potential of large-scale freeform construction is to build a full-scale house in a day at a fraction of today's cost. The current reality of mega layered manufacturing is it delivers more modest benefits: the ability to build designs that are difficult or impossible to construct (think Frank Gehry) using conventional techniques. In this way, large-scale freeform fabrication mimics its smaller, older cousin of rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing, except the technology is not as mature. One of the more exciting players in the mega 3D printing industry is Enrico Dini. The Italian engineer's d_shape (formerly Monolite) technology combines sand and an inorganic binder to produce what he says is a marble-like material with a resistance and traction superior to Portland cement.
Dini deserves special recognition because his UK-based Monolite UK Ltd company is actually printing large outdoor sculptures and structures. Funding Challenges Dini might be in for a wait if Dr. Blueprint Magazine - Architecture & Design. Untitled Document. Huge 'Printer' Would Build a House in 24 Hours. Perhaps you've used those programs that let you design your dream house, creating a Computer Aided Design (CAD) file.
Not quite ready to take up the hammer and start building? What if you could just "print" your house? Behrokh Khoshnevis (USC Engineering) has been perfecting his contour crafting device, which squirts semi-liquid construction materials to form walls and domed ceilings. His ultimate objective? "The goal is to be able to completely construct a one-story, 2000-square foot home on site, in one day and without using human hands. " Dr. Citing a 200-1 speed increase over traditional house-building methods, Dr. Contour Crafting is the only layered fabrication technology which is suitable for large scale fabrication. See Contour Crafting: 3D House Printer for additional details on how the technique actually works. (This Science Fiction in the News story used with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.)