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Tuesday, September 11, 2018
US military uses 'world’s largest' 3D printer to build concrete barracks
www.designboom.com: the US marine corps systems command (MCSC) has constructed a prototype concrete barracks in under two days with what it calls the world’s largest 3D printer. the 3D printer was used to build a basic barracks hut measuring 500 sq ft (46 sq m) in just 40 hours.
6 comments:
DJ L.
said...
What an amazing use of technology. While we may not always think about it in this way, the U.S. military is one of the central hubs for new and emerging technology. The battle field is always a dangerous place. An enemy is not going to leave you alone because you haven’t setup shop yet and still “need more time” to finished building your barracks. With this new concept of using robots to “3D print” barracks, we are able to keep humans out of harm’s way while these reinforcements are being setup. Right now, the only issue is they still need people there to mix the concrete and put it in the pump that is attached to the large 3D printer. That being said, the military understands that this is a major drawback and knows it needs to make that autonomous as well. I think this will be relatively easy to do. Once a hopper with concrete mix is setup, it could auto dispense a certain amount of mix and water ever so often into a mixer. The mixer could be directly feeding the pump to transfer it to the print head. This could easily be monitored from a far with cameras and sensors in order to make sure everything is functioning properly.
I love the innovative ways people have been adapting 3D printers in recent years. I think using this efficient technology to enhance infrastructure and living situations at home and abroad is a fantastic idea. This article talks about using 3D printers for military barracks, which could save money on construction costs and make building projects take a significantly smaller amount of time. If humanity extends the use of this technology, we could use it in so many other situations as well. Parts of the world devastated by poverty, war, and natural disasters could be speedily, and inexpensively, rebuilt and given a chance to thrive again with 3D printed structures. The limits to what can be done, and the people that can be helped by it, are endless. Of course, companies need to work out some of the flaws in this process, namely safety and whether using a printer would take jobs from actual people. Hopefully they can find ways for the people who would normally build to tend to the machine so its use doesn’t have a negative impact on employment.
I’m not surprised to hear that the military is building a 3D printer. I see the advantage to having this technology in active war zones. I wonder if this technology could be used to build houses after disasters or in other places where houses are needed quickly and there is little manual labor available. However, it could decrease the number of job and if there is also a lack of employment opportunities, having machines to most of the work could be detrimental. Also, a 3D printer on this scale would probably have a theatrical application. Most 3D printers are to small for any use in scenery, though they can be used to make props/ Though we do not have much use for concrete in theater, there is the potential to put other materials in it. It seem unlikely that we will be 3D printing all of our scenery in the near future, this may be the next big theatrical technology.
It is steps up in the usage of the 3D printing additive process such as this one by the marines that get me excited for the future. While the military is commonly try to search for new technologies to adapt and use, this usage of 3D printing is a bigger deal than many might believe. I say this because the military more often than not is looking for technologies that are highly adaptable but also high dependable, and their research into how useful 3D printing can be for them proves that we are getting to point were our abilities to print with 3D printer is growing rapidly in both size and dependability. How might this effect theater fabrication though? While I have seen multiple 3D printers capabile of using materials such as concrete or mud (which is not useful for theater) I have yet to see and materials that are more on the wood based side of the road and it is once we have such a material that I feel theaters usage of printing will explode.
I am always fascinated by all of the ways technology can be used. I would guess that if you looked at 3D printer technology even 5 years ago, people would not have guessed that eventually it could be used to build full size structures. Whenever I see an advancement like this, it always makes me wonder about other potential uses for this scale of 3D printing. I wonder if this idea could be applied to creating inexpensive housing or other forms of outreach or community service. I am glad to see the military is looking into this technology for outside the box uses and that the government sees value in advancing technology like this for future use. While I still think this concept has a ways to go before it could be brought down to a consumer level in a cost-effective way, I am excited to see where it goes and how it evolves.
3D printing is clearly a technology that is here to stay and only get more and more accessible. I have seen videos of the massive 3D printer in action and it really is a groundbreaking technology. As I become more and more aware of the technology and how it works, part of me questions how this could work given that the nature of 3D printing starts with a material drying before there is more material placed on top of it. In this case, concrete takes much longer to dry than some PVA plastic coming out of a glorified hot glue gun. While I do acknowledge the idea and concept of 3D printing homes, the technology is still far from where it needs to be to be readily accessible to the common building contractor. I think this article does a very good job of demonstrating the technology with just 3 pictures and some captions.
6 comments:
What an amazing use of technology. While we may not always think about it in this way, the U.S. military is one of the central hubs for new and emerging technology. The battle field is always a dangerous place. An enemy is not going to leave you alone because you haven’t setup shop yet and still “need more time” to finished building your barracks. With this new concept of using robots to “3D print” barracks, we are able to keep humans out of harm’s way while these reinforcements are being setup. Right now, the only issue is they still need people there to mix the concrete and put it in the pump that is attached to the large 3D printer. That being said, the military understands that this is a major drawback and knows it needs to make that autonomous as well. I think this will be relatively easy to do. Once a hopper with concrete mix is setup, it could auto dispense a certain amount of mix and water ever so often into a mixer. The mixer could be directly feeding the pump to transfer it to the print head. This could easily be monitored from a far with cameras and sensors in order to make sure everything is functioning properly.
I love the innovative ways people have been adapting 3D printers in recent years. I think using this efficient technology to enhance infrastructure and living situations at home and abroad is a fantastic idea. This article talks about using 3D printers for military barracks, which could save money on construction costs and make building projects take a significantly smaller amount of time. If humanity extends the use of this technology, we could use it in so many other situations as well. Parts of the world devastated by poverty, war, and natural disasters could be speedily, and inexpensively, rebuilt and given a chance to thrive again with 3D printed structures. The limits to what can be done, and the people that can be helped by it, are endless. Of course, companies need to work out some of the flaws in this process, namely safety and whether using a printer would take jobs from actual people. Hopefully they can find ways for the people who would normally build to tend to the machine so its use doesn’t have a negative impact on employment.
I’m not surprised to hear that the military is building a 3D printer. I see the advantage to having this technology in active war zones. I wonder if this technology could be used to build houses after disasters or in other places where houses are needed quickly and there is little manual labor available. However, it could decrease the number of job and if there is also a lack of employment opportunities, having machines to most of the work could be detrimental. Also, a 3D printer on this scale would probably have a theatrical application. Most 3D printers are to small for any use in scenery, though they can be used to make props/ Though we do not have much use for concrete in theater, there is the potential to put other materials in it. It seem unlikely that we will be 3D printing all of our scenery in the near future, this may be the next big theatrical technology.
It is steps up in the usage of the 3D printing additive process such as this one by the marines that get me excited for the future. While the military is commonly try to search for new technologies to adapt and use, this usage of 3D printing is a bigger deal than many might believe. I say this because the military more often than not is looking for technologies that are highly adaptable but also high dependable, and their research into how useful 3D printing can be for them proves that we are getting to point were our abilities to print with 3D printer is growing rapidly in both size and dependability. How might this effect theater fabrication though? While I have seen multiple 3D printers capabile of using materials such as concrete or mud (which is not useful for theater) I have yet to see and materials that are more on the wood based side of the road and it is once we have such a material that I feel theaters usage of printing will explode.
I am always fascinated by all of the ways technology can be used. I would guess that if you looked at 3D printer technology even 5 years ago, people would not have guessed that eventually it could be used to build full size structures. Whenever I see an advancement like this, it always makes me wonder about other potential uses for this scale of 3D printing. I wonder if this idea could be applied to creating inexpensive housing or other forms of outreach or community service. I am glad to see the military is looking into this technology for outside the box uses and that the government sees value in advancing technology like this for future use. While I still think this concept has a ways to go before it could be brought down to a consumer level in a cost-effective way, I am excited to see where it goes and how it evolves.
3D printing is clearly a technology that is here to stay and only get more and more accessible. I have seen videos of the massive 3D printer in action and it really is a groundbreaking technology. As I become more and more aware of the technology and how it works, part of me questions how this could work given that the nature of 3D printing starts with a material drying before there is more material placed on top of it. In this case, concrete takes much longer to dry than some PVA plastic coming out of a glorified hot glue gun. While I do acknowledge the idea and concept of 3D printing homes, the technology is still far from where it needs to be to be readily accessible to the common building contractor. I think this article does a very good job of demonstrating the technology with just 3 pictures and some captions.
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