What we have here is a concrete 3D printer. The entire scope of the project is to support the builders in the state with 3D printing houses, especially with low income dormitory. How can we build houses faster, cheaper and more resilient? With concrete we are much more resistant to environmental factors, right? So hurricanes, forest fires, such things. We cannot produce buildings quickly enough. We have to be concerned about reducing the costs. We have to be concerned about keeping high quality standards. And all this kind of connection with this technology. It enables us to try to combine many of the different parts of the house in an operation or a process. Much of what we look at is, how can the materials be something that we can obtain from different areas that are not so difficult to find, but also just as durable. You work just as well in the house. The concrete is only in its base shape, cement water, stones and sand for the simplest terms. 3D printed concrete is highly modified versions of it. Where we now take the same basic elements, but now add a whole range of different modifiers to change the properties of this mixture so that they are very fine in order to actually be printable. This material that we are currently using is a preparatory mix that was provided by the instrument. So we use the same material for our preliminary studies. Instead of adding some other additives, we try to include locally available materials in the mix with which we will reduce the costs and improve the functionality of the material. The way we are actually changing in the industry is that we have many different disciplines. We have many different ideas at the table. We have many different people who have their specialist knowledge. So we have material scientists, we have system engineers, we have architecture and architectural design. We have structure and civil engineering. And how do we turn it into our industry at the end of the day? How do we get our industry to work with it? And here the Myers Lawson School of Construction comes into play, working on bringing all of these experts together, but then understand how she translates into something with which the industry wants to work with.
Basis of the basis for affordable living space Virginia Tech News
