3D Printer Could Build a Church (or Moon Houses)
An Italian man by the name of Enrico Dini hopes to build a cathedral using a 3D printer.
3D printing is nothing new. It's been done before on a smaller scale with enclosed printers, but the restrictions presented by an enclosed printer mean you can only print objects up to a certain size. However, Encrico Dini's creation is unenclosed and opens the architectural world open to a world where houses, buildings and sculptures can be built, or rather printed, on site.
Enrico and his brother Ricardo, a mechanical engineer, designed the machine, which is dubbed the d-shape. According to Blueprint Magazine (via MAKE), the two are based in Pisa, Italy, where the d-shape looks like a prototype for the automotive industry.
Four columns independently support a frame with a single armature on it. Driven by CAD software installed on a dust-covered computer terminal, the armature moves just millimetres above a pile of sand, expressing a magnesium-based solution from hundreds of nozzles on its lower side. It makes four passes. The layer dries and Enrico Dini recalibrates the armature frame. The system deposits the sand and then inorganic binding ink. The exercise is repeated. The millennia-long process of laying down sedimentary rock is accelerated into a day.
Bluprint Magazine reports that although the machine could build anything, Dini has his heart set on a cathedral, or, failing that, houses on the moon.
*Photo credit: Blueprint Magazine
- Verizon to Ditch Unlimited Data Plans With 4G LTE
- China Warns of 'Consequences' in Google's Plans
- Cell Phone Inventor Ditches iPhone for a DROID
- PlayStation Move Has Multiplayer Design Limitation
- Apple Releases More Details on iPad 3G Version
- Man Charged for Attempt to Corrupt Terrorism DB
- OnLive Game Service Hits PC, Mac in June
- iDongle Easily Jailbreaks Your iPhone
- We're Made Up of A Lot of Empty Space
- LEGO BlackBerry is the Funkiest TV Around
- Obama Contemplating Three-Strikes Piracy Law
- Government to Reveal Internet Policy on Tuesday
- Hacked Nintendo DS Controls DSLR Cameras
- Tech Brings X360 Games to iPhone, Android OS
- PlayStation Move Uses Just 2MB of System RAM
- Irate Consumer Smashes Laptop at HP Store
- World's Most Expensive TV Costs $2,250,000
- Sony: UMD Format Still "Alive and Well"
- Google Working to Make Gmail Faster
houses on the moon?
moon churches.
I had read about this in Popular Science awhile back. If these things can be made in such a way that mother nature tends to break things (earthquakes, rain, snow, ice, hurricanes, etc etc...) and lay down material as strong as reinforced concrete, then why the hell not! The sky's the limit. Now just have to figure out how to get the re-bar into the structure... I guess they could just make a mold, then pour the concrete inside.
Looks like my dreams for an evil lair are going to come true after all... Now I wonder if he can print out sharks with lasers on their heads.
how durable is this dust material??
I had read about this in Popular Science awhile back. If these things can be made in such a way that mother nature tends to break things (earthquakes, rain, snow, ice, hurricanes, etc etc...) and lay down material as strong as reinforced concrete, then why the hell not! The sky's the limit. Now just have to figure out how to get the re-bar into the structure... I guess they could just make a mold, then pour the concrete inside.Looks like my dreams for an evil lair are going to come true after all... Now I wonder if he can print out sharks with lasers on their heads.
I know that the evil lair feeling. I wonder if he could design one to be put in a volcano.
Lava nice day...bwhahaha.
And I'd damn well say that if I had a volcano lair. Corny or not.
Interesting, but why would we try to create housing estates in an unsustainable environment. Furthermore why not choose a poor 3rd world country as a demonstration platform for this project instead of the moon? It's not as romantic, but at least it would be good for something.
So many problems with the world we're living in and we choose to solve hypothetical ones.
how durable is this dust material??
We shall find out the first time it rains
Students at Arizona Stat University here in Phoenix get to work with an enclosed 3D printer. They've come up with some very unsual stuff.
I would like to see the finished product.
This seems like another step towards replicators
"Dammit my house got knocked down"
"It's OK I'll print you out a new one."
I have used 3D printers to make prototypes of projects here at Mich. Tech. There are different kind of "sands" you can use, all seem to be white tho, some are ceramic based and you can prototype molds for casting. Zinc works quite well b/c of its lower melting temp so there are some limitations, but this might spark new "sands" to be created for this kind of work.
For this to work on the moon, the machine needs to assemble itself, and build using moon materials only. Lots more work to be done.
Whatever happened to the separation of church and planet?
We shall find out the first time it rains
I don't think there is rain on the moon
Let's hope it won't be leaning...
This is nothing new. Just look up contour crafting.