Application and Research on Building 3D Printing
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 12, 2020 APPLICATION AND RESEARCH ON BUILDING 3D PRINTING WENJIE LUO1*, XINCHEN MA1 ,JIAN YIN2 1 Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China 2 School of Civil Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Henan, 454003, China Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected] Received: 11.03.2020 Revised: 12.04.2020 Accepted: 13.05.2020 Abstract As a novel category of green construction method, Building 3D Printing has the advantages of material saving, energy-saving, time-saving and customization. Nevertheless, this technology still cannot suffice the practical requirements of large-scale production in the construction industry, and it requires further exploration and research in printing equipment and materials, supportive software, evaluation standards and other aspects. Hence, this paper starts with the introduction of 3D Printing in industrial manufacturing, expounds the classification of 3D Printing in the construction field and the research status, introduces the technical process of Concrete Printing within the Building 3D Printing, printing equipment and software concerned, eventually analyze the existing problems and look forward to the prospective development. Keywords: Additive Manufacturing; 3D Printing; green construction; Concrete Printing; research status © 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.12.103 INTRODUCTION German Photonics Research Plan, which included financial The manufacturing technology employing Computer support for the research and development of 3D Printing Numerical Control (CNC) is also known as Subtractive technology [3]. In August 2012, the US government spent $30 Manufacturing, which is a way to remove excess parts of raw million to establish the National Center for Defense materials for a final product through cutting, grinding, Manufacturing and Machining in Ohio [4]. corrosion and melting. In contrast, 3D Printing, called Additive The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the Manufacturing as well [1], is an advanced technology that research and application of 3D Printing technology. In 2012, combines layers of printed material into three-dimensional the Ministry of Science and Technology released the National entities using a computerized numerical control model. In High-tech Research and Development Plan (863 plan), which short, 3D Printing is the process of layering and superimposing highlighted the field of 3D Printing. In 2015, the Ministry of to produce three-dimensional objects without the need for Industry and Information Technology of China officially moulds. launched the Promotion Plan of the Development of National The notion of 3D Printing was first patented in 1989 by Additive Manufacturing Industry, which is the first unique Emanual Sachs et al. from Massachusetts Institute of promotion plan for 3D Printing technology in China. In 2016, Technology. In the 1990s, Charles W.Hull from the USA China's 13th five-year plan put forward five development developed a Rapid Prototyping system which is capable of concepts of "innovation, coordination, green, development and producing manufactured parts, which is a significant milestone sharing", which also requires that the construction industry in the development of 3D Printing technology [2]. should emphasize the concept of green development, take new-type construction industrialization as the core, deeply Since the 21st century, governments around the world have integrate information technology, and update and upgrade the gradually carried out plans and policies to promote the industrial chain of construction industry[5]. In the same year, development of 3D Printing technology. In May 2011, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung released the outlined the 2016-2020 Construction Industry Informatization Journal of critical reviews 564 APPLICATION AND RESEARCH ON BUILDING 3D PRINTING Development Outline: We should actively research 3D Printing technology-intensive industry is becoming more urgent. equipment and materials in the construction industry, and Intending to solve this significant problem, 3D Printing explore 3D Printing technology in conjunction with Building provides practical solutions and technical support. Traditional Information Modeling (BIM) Application in construction construction methods have high labour intensity, high safety production. risks, high material waste, and lengthy construction cycles. In comparison, the application of 3D Printing in the construction With the gradual weakening of China's advantage of industry has significant advantages, as shown in table 1. demographic dividend, the demand for the construction industry to change from a labour-intensive industry to a Table 1: Strengths of 3D Printing technology in construction industry Advantages Descriptions (1) In terms of labour, most of the 3D Printing of buildings uses computer control and mechanized operations, which saves human resources to a large extent; (2) In light of materials, 3D printed buildings form at one time, without the need for mould support and mould removal, which reduces the consumption and waste of material resources; Resource-saving (3) Given the construction period, 3D Printing technology greatly retrofits production efficiency compared with traditional construction techniques, and can achieve a reduction of more than 50% of the construction period [6], shortening the investment recovery period; (4) In point of cost, the cost of 3D printers to print complex components is generally no more than the cost of making simple components, i.e., there is almost no cost increase. In the process of 3D Printing construction, operators only need to manipulate the computer to complete Safety most of the work, without having to enter the construction building to work at any time, significantly reducing the probability of accidents. Environmental There is almost no environmental pollution such as noise, dust and intense vibration during the printing protection process. The shape of the product constrains traditional construction techniques and the tools used, but 3D Printing Flexible design and technology can dispense these limitations to meet the needs of the builder and also allow designers to give customization full play to their creativity. It can easily print out building curves that are difficult to achieve in other ways, making the building function and shape more innovative. By following the preset computer program and constructing layer by layer, artificial errors can be largely Accuracy avoided, and the quality of the finished product can be guaranteed. 3D Printing can be carried out according to the actual demand, thereby reducing inventory, and at the same Immediacy time, it can be formed at one time without assembly, which can realize the immediacy of Printing to delivery. Extreme conditions refer to severe cold, high temperature, and weightlessness, which lead to severe Applicability of difficulties in human activities, and where traditional manufacturing processes cannot be implemented any extreme conditions more. At this time, 3D Printing technology can fully replace the manual operation and execute the construction of building entities under extreme conditions. Nonetheless, the application of 3D Printing technology in the optimization that need to be resolved, inevitably restricting the construction industry still confronts a series of difficulties. E.g., promotion of 3D Printing building technology and the a complete and adequate evaluation standard and index formation of an industrial chain. Hence, it is particularly crucial system have not been set up yet. There are still numerous to establish a unified standard and evaluation system and problems in the process flow, printing materials, equipment develop more advanced and applicable 3D Printing equipment and supporting software, design methods, and model and materials. Journal of critical reviews 565 APPLICATION AND RESEARCH ON BUILDING 3D PRINTING printing materials to classify 3D Printing technology into five Classification of 3D Printing categories (Table 2) : At present, 3D Printing technology has not formed a unified (1) FDM using thermoplastic as a raw material; classification standard. Generally speaking, according to the (2) LOM using thin sheet materials (paper, metal film, plastic size of printing equipment, it can be divided into a desktop, film) as raw materials; medium and large 3D printer. In accordance with the usage (3) 3DP with gypsum powder and ceramic powder as raw classification, it can be divided into aerospace, medical and materials and adhesive bonding moulding; health care, and construction 3D printer. Most commonly, it (4) Photopolymerization moulding technology using can be divided according to their moulding principles, namely photosensitive resin as raw material and light source for Stereo Lithography Appearance, Selective Laser Sintering [7], curing, including SLA, Poly Jet and DLP; Selective Laser Melting, Fused Deposition Modeling [8], (5) Laser powder moulding technology, that is, the technology Laminated Object Manufacturing, Three Dimensional Printing using powder materials (metal, alloy, ceramic and paraffin) as and Gluing [9], Digital Light Processing, Poly Jet, Direct Metal raw materials for laser sintering/melting