A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) has developed 3D printed urban furniture from construction materials manufactured from local industrial waste. 3D impression of concrete is gaining ground in the building and construction industries.
Recent developments in this field such as 3D printed modular houses, pedestrian footbridges, office buildings, public schools, low-cost toilet units have the potential to initiate a paradigm change in the practice of construction. The IIT-G research group used specially-developed printable concrete containing industrial wastes as binders to build 3D printed furniture with a seating height of 0.4 m, a width of 0.4 m, and arch-shaped support that was modeled and sliced using SolidWorks and Simplify3D, respectively.
The entire unit was printed layer by layer at an 80 mm/s speed, with each layer having a 10 mm height. After the unit was printed, it was covered by moist gunny bags for 7 days to cure before being used. Traditionally, these structures were mold cast which requires more concrete material, labor, and formwork preparation.
However, with 3D concrete printing, optimized designs are printed with 75 percent less concrete and without the need for a mold. "We showcased how material-efficient structures can be produced in our lab-scale 3D printer. Our goal is to design high-performance concrete mixes made from industrial wastes for the printing of such complex structures," Dr. Biranchi Panda, Department of Mechanical Engineering, said in a statement.
The team is now exploring underwater concrete printing and the possibility of printing functional reinforced concrete using low carbon materials."3D printing of concrete can be a technological solution for reducing carbon footprint in the building and construction industry," Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT-G said.
"From the Indian context, a techno-economic analysis must be carried out that takes into account not only environmental sustainability but also aspects relating to cost, quality, labor, and maintenance associated with 3D printing," Sitharam added.
The research team believes that on-demand, on-site 3D concrete printing will have a global impact on versatile construction applications and multi-billion-dollar markets worldwide. The future jobs will be marshaled into design, automation, servicing, and maintenance of digital systems.
