UCLA "Cements" Its Reputation Using 3D Printing to Capture CO2

We've blogged before about ventures that have involved 3D printing houses.  Now, UCLA researchers are working on a 3D printing process that allows them to reuse captive carbon dioxide as an ingredient in cement.  They call their revolutionary material CO2NCRETE.

Now that they've identified a process that works, the team is thinking about how to scale up and commercialize it so the 3D printed CO2NCRETE can be marketed and sold:

“We know how to capture the carbon. We know how to improve the efficiency. We know how to shape it with 3D printing, but we need to do all of that at the lab scale now, and begin the process of actually increasing the volume of material and then thinking about how to pilot it commercially,” states DeShazo, who has been responsible for providing ‘public policy and economic guidance’ in terms of this research.”

Maybe someday, the 3D printed cement can be used to 3D print those houses.

“

Mortgage Lender Offers Novel 3D Printed Give-Away as Incentive

Image and Article Credit:  3DPrint.com

I remember a time when banks gave away toasters and other items to win customers' business. One notoriously offered firearms!   Adding a new twist to an old idea, the Swiss Bank Zurcher Kantonalbank recently rewarded a mortgage applicant with a 3D print of the customer's home. Using the home's blueprint to create a 3D model, Zurcher Kantonalbank had the model printed into a replica it then mounted on wood with a plague bearing the bank's name.  That's creative and memorable advertising...  And I can understand why the bank might go to such lengths.  Housing in Switzerland is among the most expensive real estate markets in the world.  Maybe this idea will catch on with other lenders and real estate brokers.

PolyBricks Designed to Build Homes Without Mortar

Image Credit:  3Dprint.com

We've blogged a few times about using additive manufacturing in construction.  Given the labor and time intensity around home building, entrepreneurs see the promise of automating this industry through AM.  There are a number of approaches being developed.  In China, they are 3D printing walls, allowing them to erect simple homes in a day. The D Shape printer, which uses a binding technology to create structures from sand, is touted as an alternative to Portland Cement, and others have even printed elaborate structures from SLS plastic.

Alternatively, a group of researchers from Sabin Design Lab, Jenny Sabin Studio and Cornell University have 3D printed ceramic blocks designed to fit together without needing mortar.  PolyBricks, which are produced on a ZCorp 510 powder-based printer, are seen as a hybrid method that optimizes the benefits of both traditional and additive manufacturing in home construction:

“Seeking to achieve a system that required no additional adhesives or mortar, we looked to traditional wood joinery techniques as a means of interlocking adjacent components. We developed a customized tapered dovetail in which the direction and severity of the tapering is dependent upon the local geometric orientation of each component; the tapering of the dovetail is based upon the slope of the surface being generated such that the narrow end of the tapering is always at the lower face of the generated surface. Thus, the force of gravity locks adjacent components together... 

The team believes it has "effectively designed a system for 3D printing mortar-less ceramic brick assemblies at scales and in materials well beyond existing constraints of additive manufacturing technology.”  

This conclusion intrigues me.  Given the number of bricks required to construct a typical home, the time needed to 3D print and post process most prints, and the material costs of ceramic powder, I'm wondering how they anticipate achieving these economies of scale to compete directly with brick and mortar construction.

[Sources: 3Dprint.com and 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing]