July 4th

Author

Jarett Gross
July 04, 2024

America loves freedom and I do too. Happy 4th of July, Automate Construction was founded with the same core principals of independence and objective progress. Today we have lot’s of interesting news from around the world because even though I love America that will never get in the way of my international reporting on 3DCP.

Here is a paper out of Qatar with findings on the environmental impact of 3DCP. “The LCA analysis showed that 3DCP significantly reduced environmental effects in terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), smog formation potential (SFP), and fossil fuel depletion (FFD), as compared to conventional construction methods.”

3D Concrete Printing Sustainability: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Four Construction Method Scenarios

Three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) has become recognized as a possible alternative to conventional concrete construction, mainly due to its potential to increase productivity and reduce the environmental impact of the construction industry. Despite its up-and-coming popularity within the field, limited research has quantitively investigated the environmental benefits that 3DCP brings. www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/10/12/245

You may also remember this MIT study referenced in the Icon SXSW event where they say 3D printed homes are 2-6% more efficient after a 75 year life cycle analysis.

Whitepaper: Reducing Carbon Emissions in the Built Environment: A Case Study in 3D Printed Homes – MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub

cshub.mit.edu/2024/03/12/whitepaper-reducing-carbon-emissions-in-the-built-environment-a-case-study-in-3d-printed-homes

3D Printable RX1 robot, fully open source and can be built under $1,000. Granted it is small but there is really no reason someone couldn’t scale this up.

Machina Labs is using robotic arms for forming custom metal parts, the robots indent the metal to form using AI to assess the current condition of the metal and manipulate it into form. Suddenly large custom metal parts are possible with millimeter precision.

This is real footage of me (the marmot) reprimanding the nefarious companies who tell customers 3DCP is 50% faster and 50% cheaper. They are setting false expectations and at this point even though it might be bringing more people into the industry it is only a matter of time until their false expectations lead to disappointment and resentment. It’s the teams that pursue projects with realistic expectations of the R&D required who will make it on the long road ahead to Automate Construction.