Another interesting addition to the wonders of 3D Printing! A Chinese firm has beyond our imaginations and used 3D printing to build 10 rudimentary prototype houses in 24 hours. Each of these houses measure 200-square-metres and are typical grey structures built using 3D printing process developed over 12 years at a cost of 20 million yuan ($3.4 million). The Wall Street Journal reports that according to WinSun engineer Chen Jiajia, the homes were printed in Suzhou and assembled in Shanghai, and will be used as offices for local authorities.
The printers use a mix of cement and industrial waste to render load-bearing structures with minimal environmental impact, and are 6.6 metres tall, 10 metres wide and about 20 metres long. The houses built by 3D printer are environmental friendly, it uses construction waste to reuse and construct new buildings. Construction work load and cost will be cut down as it is more of mechanical work than physical labour work and uses construction waste as raw material.
WinSun’s foray into 3D printing makes us believe that 3D printing applications are beyond routine stuff like plane parts, prototypes, models, jewellery and even gun parts. The company also has hopes to build skyscrapers in the future. Currently the process has one hiccup – the printers are not yet able to print roofing materials.