World’s largest 3D-printer takes on housing scale challenges

Building houses quickly and on a very tight budget through additive manufacturing is a very interesting proposition. It would afford builders huge amounts of design flexibility, giving way to unusual but highly functional structures that simply couldn’t be assembled any other way in challenging locations.

3D-printed houses may be about to become more commonplace as the United Nations predicts that worldwide, there will be a need for almost a hundred thousand new homes daily, for the next 15 years. One of the aspects of 3D-printed buildings we have noted before is that with the right criteria they could bring quick relief to areas hit by natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes and floods.

Italian engineering company WASP, which manufactures 3D printers in all sizes, has recently been focused on scaling up their ability to print. They recently announced a record-breaking 12 m (40 ft) tall printer called the Big Delta.

Supported by a metal frame 6 m (20 ft) in diameter, a rotating nozzle functions as a mixer that keeps printing materials homogeneous, while reportedly requiring only tens of watts of power to work. The possible building materials range from mud to clay to cement that can be structurally reinforced with small amounts of chemical additives. And with its great flexibility in shapes, sizes and choice of materials, 3D-printed housing has more potential than merely addressing disaster area needs or the surging population in the developing world.

See the press release for more information.