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3D Printers To Build Houses
gbjbaanb writes to point out an article in the Sunday Times describing two separate programs where robots are being developed to build houses. The Los Angeles project is farther along than the one in the UK, but the article provides more details on the techniques employed in the latter. Liquid concrete and gypsum will be sprayed from nozzles in a manner analogous to an inkjet printer. From the article: "The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-story house built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be erected in California before April. The robots are rigged to a metal frame, enabling them to shuttle in three dimensions and assemble the structure of the house layer by layer. The sole foreman on site operates a computer programmed with the designer's plans... Inspired by the inkjet printer, the technology goes far beyond the techniques already used for prefabricated homes. 'This will remove all the limitations of traditional building,' said [an architect involved with the UK project]. 'Anything you can dream you can build.'"
Doubtful, but it would be fairly simple (from what I can gather) to have the 'printer' work in tandem with another device which can accurately place pre-manufactured plumbing, wiring etc.
Of course how that device works is another issue, but you could end up with a single mobile 'rig' which can just move along an empty row of plots and build houses all day. Quicker and cheaper than a load of builders.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
... also painters, electricians, interior decorators, glaziers, etc.. This system seems to miss out most of the fiddly, expensive jobs.
How does it put the layer of insulation in the wall cavities? Is there a way of producing foamed concrete? That would be cool.
Finally "possibly even wallpaper". This is a really bad idea. I used to live in the Barbican in London, which used textured concrete surfaces for the walls of its stairs and communal areas, and my knuckles still bear the scars
Reduce, reuse, cycle
If there isn't reinforcement, how does the floor on the second story (first story for the UK project :-)) support itself? Is it arched or something?
How does it stay watertight? Do they just mean it will keep the rain off for long enough to get a real roof installed? Or are they planning on leaving it with a concrete roof?
What keeps the concrete from slumping while it's being sprayed? Does someone have to put up forms ahead of time?
Ooooo, orbital structures. It may not be able to make the solar panels, but this might be able to take a lot of the work out of putting together a Solar Power Satellite, and some day even an orbital colony. Or planet-based colony, I suppose, for you land-loving heathens.
The idea is not new....
I fail to see the necessity of (and, accordingly, I resent bitterly) all these coral-reef methods. Better walls than this, and better and less life-wasting ways of making them, are surely possible. In the wall in question, concrete would have been cheaper and better than bricks if only "the men" had understood it. But I can dream at last of much more revolutionary affairs, of a thing running to and fro along a temporary rail, that will squeeze out wall as one squeezes paint from a tube, and form its surface with a pat or two as it sets.
H.G. Wells, ANTICIPATIONS OF THE REACTION OF MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS UPON HUMAN LIFE AND THOUGHT (1902 second edition)
This doesn't replace my idea to construct a house made out of giant legos does it? Because I totally want that, about 1000 mostly hollow plastic legos could make a house in an afternoon.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
hmm.... Sounds like a good idea, with a one big con.
:)
Pros:
- Bathroom - no need to worry about water leaks since there are no cracks between concrete-blocks to any connecting room and to make it even better just spray the walls and floor with some type of water-seal to protect the concrete.
- Noise - No cracks in walls so the house should be quite isolated from external noise.
- Easy to add thermal and noise isolation in the building, just add a foam-spray nossle to the robot and you can have automatic isolation in the build-process. add a layer in every roof/wall and it should be very noise-resistant & have good thermal isolation.
- Fire persistent - If you build every wall in the building in this material fires should not spread easily between rooms the building.
- Easy&cheap to build
Cons:
- Since it's a very static building it will probably not be very resistant even to small changes in ground-movement, but maybe they can fix this with adding some type of rubber-seal between walls in the build-process.
And a question, how do they build the roofs?? Since they don't have anything to lay down the concrete on they need to build that in a separate place and then lift that onto the building and that would still require construction-workers on-site.
Dreaming of when they invent the real replicator as seen in Star-trek
In Japan you can by a house one room at a time, the rooms are placed on a large box metal base. There whole thing is built in a factory and fits together like lego on site, there are no traditional foundations, the base just sits ontop of the ground making the houses "earthquake proof". If you want an extra room you can just bolt one on.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Well, that's not really hard; however it doesn't look so nice if you view it from another angle.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
True. The building trades are moving towards technologies that can be automated. For instance, plumbing is using a plastic semi-rigid tubing called PEX. It's sold in sticks, but is flexible enough to be delivered on large reels. It's crimped onto brass connectors - nothing that couldn't be done by a robot. A regular plumber would do the finish work of connecting the toilets, sinks, baths, water heaters, etc.
Same thing for electrical work. Most houses are wired with Romex, and 3M introduced a crimp Romex joint that could easily be applied by a robot. The robot could ink-jet print all the information about where the wire stubs coming out of the walls come from or go to. The electrician would then just finish the house by connecting the breaker panel, switches, outlets and lights.
There is virtually nothing running through the walls of a house - telephone, TV, alarm, heating and return air ducts, drains - that couldn't be installed with robotic labor.
The problem is that all these cost saving measures are going to eliminate a huge number of jobs. Read Marshall Brain's "Robotic Nation" essay to get an idea of the social ramifications.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
The firm of polish builders I employed to replace my (polystyrene tile-covered) kitchen ceiling and move a door in one of my walls last year seemed competent, had a foreman who spoke perfect english, stuck to the original quote they gave despite discovering a few problems in the process, and generally did a good job.
We're talking about the building trade. You get your fair share of cowboys, regardless of the nationality of said cowboy. Don't read anything into it.