A Product That Can Make The Field Of 3D Construction Printing Profitable
3D CONSTRUCTION PRINTING
The field of 3D construction printing looks amazing. Innovative. revolutionary. futuristic. The headlines are bombastic. "You can now build a home in just 24 hours" "This Home Was 3D Printed in Only 24 Hours and for Just $10,000" and so o
I don't want to be the one to ruin the party. But have you noticed that they always talk about the time and cost of the construction itself, and not the time and cost that preceded the construction? What actually enabled the fast and economical construction? Considering the time needed to prepare the print in the field, is it still fast? Considering the costs of preparing the area for printing, is it still economical? Were the terrain conditions carefully selected and constructed to allow the display?
I was unable to find any organized data on behalf of the 3D construction printing companies, but I can speculate about the unpublished data.
Today there is an abundance of robotics and precise machines. But what most of them have in common is that they are in factories and not in the field. In order to establish a production point in the field, you need to establish a suitable infrastructure in the field. And precise machines need precise infrastructures.
Again, due to the lack of data, we can only speculate on the previous work for the actual construction. This work probably includes: Leveling the land symmetrically (not a simple job at all).The construction of the infrastructure of the crane: Must be symmetrical, balanced, and accurate. Actual printing: Only when there are no winds that can tip the machine even a few inches.
All these matters are things that under laboratory conditions do not need to be handled at all. The whole need arises because you take a machine that is suitable for laboratory conditions and transfer it to the field.
Therefore, I assume that before the hyped video displays that these companies are eager to show, there must have been a lot of work performed beforehand. i.e. work of transforming an outdoor area into laboratory conditions. And besides, they were probably waiting for the perfect weather without any strong winds to do the work in front of the cameras.
And that is why, in my opinion, 3D construction printing is neither commercial nor profitable today, except for gimmicks or special designs.
THE SOLUTION
After being so pessimistic about the rosy future found in all our futurist books, I want to tell you that there is indeed an existing solution. It has even been successfully tried on 3D construction printing, though barely anything was published except for one tiny line in a presentation of a small and unknown company from Australia.
FBR
FBR is a listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:). Its market value is currently approximately $100M. The company has already developed a prototype of Hadrian X, which is a robotic machine that knows how to precisely cut and place bricks for building a house.
HADRIAN X (FBR)
DST
FBR has developed a mechanism called Dynamic Stabilization Technology™ (DST ). FBR describes their product as follows:
''DST™ delivers accuracy previously only achievable with indoor robots, paving the way for robotic automation outdoors. Traditionally robotics has been used indoors in controlled, stable and static environments to perform repetitive tasks, such as car manufacturing. Outdoors, robots are exposed to unpredictable and continuously changing interference such as wind, vibrations, altering machine motions and thermal variation.
Dynamic Stabilization Technology™ (DST™) is a highly accurate system that continuously adjusts the position of a robot's end effector to ensure it is always held with stability at the correct point in 3D space.
When FBR's DST™ is combined with FBR proprietary software it enables robots to work outdoors in unstable unpredictable environments and perform bespoke tasks.''
Hadrian X DST (FBR
DST & 3D CONSTRUCTION PRINTING
The FBR company through Hadrian X is in 'competition' for the future of construction with the field of 3D construction printing.But that didn't stop them from checking the feasibility of using their DST system for 3D construction printing. Last June, the FBR company issued a presentation to investors where it said for the first time that:
''Preliminary DST testing complete on potential 3D concrete printing application – results extremely promising using existing technology and platform'''
6A1095491_FBR.pdf
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF 3D CONSTRUCTION PRINTING & DST LOOK LIKE?
Either the 3D construction printing companies will adopt the DST product, or alternatively the FBR company itself will become a 3D construction printing company. Then instead of building optimal field conditions bordering on the impossible, all they would need is to bring a Hadrian X type truck that would have a long arm, and at the end of the arm would be the printer. There will be no need for all the preparation of the field conditions, because with the DST system the arm knows how to adapt itself precisely to the area being built.This means that we will not have to see all the construction columns, and they will not have to prepare the area in advance beyond standard preparation. And a truck will simply come and print the concrete exactly according to the plan. And it's all over: Effective, short, smart, technological.
CONCLUSION
3D construction printing companies are facing a fundamental challenge of turning field conditions into laboratory conditions in order to succeed in building with accurate printing. Failure to solve this problem will probably leave the field of 3D construction printing as a niche and unprofitable field. FBR has a product that fits like a glove. It can make the field of 3D construction printing profitable and efficient.
