April 3, 2007 — Hammering, sawing, drilling and bricklaying could one day be replaced with printing. A room-size machine currently being built by researchers in the U.K. will use rapid prototyping techniques to print walls, complete with brick, plaster, windows, insulation and conduits for wires and pipes.
The technique could make walls stronger and more functional, while at the same time reducing construction waste, minimizing the amount of labor needed and liberating the building's form.
"Maybe straight is not always the best shape. You can build a flat or curvy place and there is no more expense involved," said Richard Buswell, lecturer for civil and building engineering at Loughborough University in U.K.
Buswell and his team are embarking on a four-year project to build the 13- by 16.4-foot-sized printer, which will borrow techniques from rapid prototyping processes currently used to produce items made of ceramics, polymers and metals.
In rapid prototyping, products are drawn and developed using three-dimensional computer-aided design software. The 3-D shapes are sliced into cross sections and a machine fabricates each layer — usually with a material made in sheets or out of liquid, powder or paste — one on top of the other to build the product from the bottom up. The layers are then bonded together, sometimes with a laser, to produce the final shape.
The process often involves using plastic-based materials. But in the case of constructing walls, Buswell and his team will be using mineral-based materials such as cement, gypsum, clay or lime.
