TIDBIT: 3D PRINTED BUILDINGS… YOU WON’T BELIEVE THESE
Mr. E.B., editor of the Tech-Com Journal, emailed me and said that their journal had seen some of my blogs here about 3D-printed dwellings, and they decided to do one themselves. He was gracious enough to send me the link, and I think you'll be truly impressed when you see what has already been done with 3d printed human dwellings, from single family houses, to high-rises:
http://www.techcommjournal.org/3d-printed-houses-buildings/
And while we're at it, I have to wonder, looking at some of these buildings and their "near-one-piece" construction, if they would not be relatively safer buildings for places like earthquake zones or for dwellings in "tornado alley". Perhaps someone with some engineering expertise in the subject might weigh in in the comments section.
4 Comments
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Engineering-wise, these structures offer two advantages over conventional construction:
First, they minimize ‘joins’. Joining two surfaces with nails, screws, bolts, etc., always concentrates the load at those tiny areas. That is one reason why structures are way over-built – to account for a bad join or three. Seamless ‘joins’ spread the load over the whole surface. Much safer, if properly manufactured. (That is why modern ships are welded together rather than riveted together.) This holds whether for earthquake loads, wind loads, or people loads.
Second, true 3D printed structures can optimize for loads in each INCH of the design. A 2×4 is not the optimum shape, either for vertical loads or horizontal loads. (Think of a tapering tree-trunk shape for optimal loading.) Neither are standard concrete blocks or bricks. Ideally, each block-layer should be built slightly lighter as the structure rose – most robust at the bottom and most ‘flimsy’ at the top. Not economically feasible.
To take advantage of building an ‘ideal’ structural way, 3D building-printers would have to be like the most sophisticated car or airplane robots – able to twist and turn among multiple axes. Plus, there would have to be a formidable computer in the design-phase, able not only to refine a truly-optimal structure but also to spit-out the 3D machine-code for ‘depositing’ each inch of the structural material – from basement to roof. This effort would probably only be economically-feasible when a whole slew of houses or apartments were to be built to similar/reversed specs. But, the savings in materials alone would be staggering.
Ironically, the structure most likely to quickly-benefit from 3D printing is the dome. Domes have always been cobbled-together from linear structural elements (except for poured concrete). Very inefficient. Imagine a huge dome being 3D-‘painted’-down solely from structurally-optimized glass (or transparent aluminum *grin*). A truly one-piece structure. Just insert innards. Some entrepreneur is going to make multi-millions…
(Domes have already shown themselves of being the most survivable in earthquake/hurricane/tornado areas. Famous photos exist of post wind-damage swaths, with utter devastation of conventional buildings but with domes quietly sitting there…)
Whoa….bravo, goshawks. Doc asked, and you answered.
With this technology the idea of a dream house really takes off. Now the problem is keeping this technology out of the hands of the usual parties who would use it to screw us.
Its a good idea.. but I fear we’ll seeing houses printed in the form of Qabbalistic Talismans and Swastikas and Angelic names…
Whatever happens.. this is the future of manufacture. You just can’t beat it for cutting costs on transport, labour and actually meeting the construction deadlines.. Until the 3d Printers get a union and the mafia (which doesnt exist eh ??) moves in..