Technical Report - Benefits and Limitations

 

  1. Benefits


Implementing 3D printing in buildings has numerous advantages, such as being more environmentally friendly, enabling more versatile designs and faster speed of construction. 

1.1 Environmentally Friendly

3D printing is a promising strategy to lower carbon emissions, waste, and energy demands (Bhusal & Kshirsagar 2020). More than 40% of all raw materials used globally are used by the construction industry. The Contour Crafting (CC) technique's CO2 emission is negligibly low compared to the current emission of the conventional concrete process (CCP) of the concrete masonry unit. The CC process has the ability to decrease material waste from seven tons to almost none for a single-family home as it uses material as needed only (Allouzi, Al-Azhari & Allouzi, 2020 as cited in Roodman, Lensssen & Peterson, 1991). 3D printing also requires minimal space for storing materials and unlike a traditional production line, it does not require energy to move from one step to another (Solonitsyn, 2022). This will allow a reduction of waste materials compared to the traditional construction process since it only prints parts that are needed.


1.2 More Versatile Designs

Compared to traditional construction, 3D printing enables architects to create more scalable and versatile structures and allows the product to be altered indefinitely. Since only material that goes beneath the layer is consumed, 3D printing is highly resource-efficient (Tejjy, 2021). 3D printing is ideal for one-off productions and manufacturing single parts in one process, meaning that its ability to customise is there to take advantage of (Tractus3D, n.d.). This will allow a wider range of designs available and can be tailored to different constructions.


1.3 Faster speed of construction

Compared to moulded or machined parts, 3D printing can print an object in a matter of hours, depending on the part's complexity and design. 3D printing is also more flexible and can work around the clock (TWI, 2019). In recent years, 3D printing has proved its effectiveness by building a house from the ground up in a matter of a few days. This allows for 60% of the time spent on the job site and 80% of labour saved (Constum, 2022).  This would enable the construction to be completed faster and in turn, help to save costs as well.


  1. Evaluation and Limitations


Although the proposed idea will bring in more benefits than disadvantages, there are still some drawbacks to be considered, such as printing inaccuracies, a lack of standard building codes and a constant electrical supply.


2.1 Printing Inaccuracies


A potential drawback of 3D printing is the inaccurate final product. The type of equipment or process used is crucial as some printers have lower tolerances which may cause the final product to deviate from the original design. Although this can be rectified in post-production, this will extend the production's time and cost (TWI, 2019). Settings of the first printed layer can impact the dimensional accuracy of the product, if the position of the nozzle is too high or low, it can dramatically impact the next 10-20 layers (Simplify3D, 2019). Hence, the workers must ensure that the type of 3D printer used has good tolerance and that the settings of the first printed layer are correct.


2.2 Lack of Standard Building Codes 


The largest issue with the 3D-printed construction industry right now is regulation (Gross, 2020). There are no regulations or processes to get 3D-printed parts approved for residential or commercial use as of the time of writing this report. Therefore, the government would first need to establish requirements and standards that must be followed for electrical, plumbing, structural soundness, and public safety codes (Williamson, 2019).

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