3D Printed Houses in China
3D printers have now entered the world of construction. You can actually build houses using 3D printing technology!
An innovative construction firm in Shanghai, China, has built around 10 houses using gigantic 3D printers. These amazing, earth-friendly, safe and durable houses are cost-effective and were built within a short span of 24 hours. Cost-effective because recycled materials mixed with fast-drying cement were used in construction. The houses are said to have cost less than $5000 each.
The construction firm also believed that 3D printing technology ensured better worker safety and healthier working conditions. Imagine mass producing affordable houses on a regular basis using a 3D printer – the thought is mind-boggling!
3D printers are literally the new printing blocks in the world of manufacturing and technology. Though 3D printers have been around for some time, they’ve not been widely used because of prohibitive costs. Experimentation and a growing awareness of 3D printers’ potential are exciting users and bringing them sharply into focus. As a result, 3D printing costs are coming down, albeit slowly, and these printers are seen as the next big thing that are set to revolutionize the way objects are made. You’ve heard of guns, toys, surgical prosthetics, aerospace parts, prototypes and the like being created using 3D printers. Even human organs using a person’s own cells are created using this technology.
So how does this work? A 3D printer can ‘print’ objects in plastic, metal and various other materials. If a material is available in powder form, it can be used for 3D printing. It’s the art of making or printing a 3-dimensional product with a computer-created virtual 3D model or blueprint. You feed the blueprint into the printer over a cable (just like you would with an inkjet 2D printer that prints 2 dimensions on paper). The printer “prints” it out on to a metal or glass platform, precisely and layer by successive layer, running into hundreds and thousands of horizontal layers until you have your whole object in 3D.
The waiting time that goes into getting prototypes is lessened considerably with 3D printing techniques which will in turn enable hefty cost-saving. Any changes you want to make to the prototype can be made instantly by making changes to the virtual model and reprinting the prototype immediately. Very soon, existing virtual model files will be downloadable from the internet if you don’t have your own model of any object you wish for.
