A Giant 3-D Printer Builds Ten Houses in One Day

I think it's time to change the name, 3D printer doesn't do justice for something like this.

Now lets see what happens when a Giant three dimensional printer get's sent to the moon and mars', a ready made colony in just a year for the astronauts or cosmonauts of the future to set up base in.

Closer to home, rapid disaster management and underwater structure's as well as new city's made of 3d bio degradable materials,
this technology may be the greated engineering leap forward for over a hundred years.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
Now lets see what happens when a Giant three dimensional printer get's sent to the moon and mars', a ready made colony in just a year for the astronauts or cosmonauts of the future to set up base in.

Closer to home, rapid disaster management and underwater structure's as well as new city's made of 3d bio degradable materials,
this technology may be the greated engineering leap forward for over a hundred years.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
Now lets see what happens when a Giant three dimensional printer get's sent to the moon and mars', a ready made colony in just a year for the astronauts or cosmonauts of the future to set up base in.

Closer to home, rapid disaster management and underwater structure's as well as new city's made of 3d bio degradable materials,
this technology may be the greated engineering leap forward for over a hundred years.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

a reply to: lostbook

This is rather fascinating and a tremendous achievement but if it were ever to become the norm what happens when after 50-100 years we forget how to build our homes and structures and are totally reliant on techniques such as this?

Then there is the unemployment factor to consider will these new 3D printing techniques taken to their logical conclusion impact our labour force?

Just playing devil advocate.

It would be great to see this company ship homes globally. They could be used to help those affected by natural and man made disasters to have a place as they rebuild. Hopefully something like that will come to fruition :-)

a reply to: lostbook

Well considering there using construction waste materials and glass fiber its pretty impressive for what it is and only cost $5,000. It may not be the best looking buildings, but on a more smaller scale you can create some very intricate things with 3D printers which you could not create by hand or using other technologies, if this technology takes off and they use different materials you could literally create all kinds of buildings that would boggle the mind as the technology becomes more advanced, it would literally change the construction business completely if not put many out of business.

I mean like really large Space-freighters. What says ATS?

Most planes are pieced parceled and parted together even the hull of the ship or frame is put together frame by frame, with something like this a more advanced version of this you could literally create seamless airplanes and spaceships which would hold better under all kinds of pressures, and in all kinds of intricate designs, so ya the applications of it are pretty large.

They can build this printer in space to create new modules for the ISS or on the moon or mars to build units .. and they already can print food and body parts . So its matter of time that a ship full of parts to build settlements totally printed

a reply to: cleverhans

Ye it would be more like or 3D constructing, or 3D fabricating, its basically just a larger model of the 3D printer and off course just using different materials. That big machine they used to build the house with cement, but you could probably even have a smaller component attached to the whole process and you can install more minute details in as well, while the machine keeps going, the more minute machines could make things such as wires in the wall, or groves for them, or any number of things.

It could literally make human construction obsolete when you can just make a model on a computer, then set up the massive machine and gear over an area, supply the materials and raw materials, then hit the ON button. Or at the very least it would be like making the inner and outer skeletal structures, which would be pretty much seamless as its just one giant part instead of a thousand little parts which were put there by human hand. And then applying anything else needed by hand. So ya 3D fabricating would be more like it, its pretty much already being done today only on a smaller scale.

a reply to: lostbook Sure we could print a spaceship but it would be easier to just print a habitable planet.

Note:

It's a Chinese company doing this. I think they are trying to pioneer this technology/ movement. I doubt they
'll want to share.

I'm seeing the Jetson's style of living nearer in our future than ever before. This will play hell in the home building market in the USA. More unemployment, more cheap crap in our economical structure, more unidentifiable materials in the products we use. Yay, cool. It won't be long before every country takes advantage of such a great deal. Cardboard houses for everyone!

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: lostbook

This is rather fascinating and a tremendous achievement but if it were ever to become the norm what happens when after 50-100 years we forget how to build our homes and structures and are totally reliant on techniques such as this?

Then there is the unemployment factor to consider will these new 3D printing techniques taken to their logical conclusion impact our labour force?

Just playing devil advocate.

One article I read on the subject claimed it would actually create more jobs. I can kind of understand that claim. More people with more homes. The basic 3D printed homes they are making now could easily replace places like this in the future.

Changing the quality of housing in those areas would have a dramatic impact on their lives adding stability and opportunity. I had seen a couple designs for 3D printed homes that incorporated rooftop gardens. Of course those are people simply hoping for shelter.

Now imagine a machine such as this on a continuous track and could place adjoining homes in those areas. Well actually it count print an entire town.

Even in the pick above in first world nation homes you would still need plumbers, drywall hangers, in some cases roofers, painters, AC installation, Electricians, You would still need amenities such as kitchen counters, sinks, tubs, and I am sure there is more. The lower price of which the foundation and walling would go up would make homes more affordable and the speed at which they went up would require more of those other job skills.

Framers, bricklayers, and many n the profession of pouring foundations would probably need to retrain into a new profession but the need for those jobs would be on the rise. The lower price of the homes could also stimulate growth in other fields such as solar installation as an example. Because those that had the money could spend it on upgrades.

I don't see this as taking away more jobs than it will create.

On a side note I like how the walls are designed they look very sturdy and they probably have some insulative properties as well.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

It's really incredible the things we can invent as a society, the advancements in production, the use of recycled materials etc. But in the end are we really doing ourselves any favors when jobs are at an all time minimum? Next they will all join together to common walls with common plumbing and electrical, everyone will stand back and say wow they were geniuses to come up with this while the unemployment line grows.

It is an inevitability. Technology is going to continue to advance, and I wager that it will be the progress of technology that kills monetary based economics.

If you replace all of your workers with machines, you have also lost all of your consumers that purchase goods. If no one is buying anything, the monetary system crumbles.

On the surface this does look like a negative thing, but it's really not. Each advancement in technology is just one step closer to a resource-based economy...and when that happens, human beings will flourish like they never have before.

I mean, could you imagine a world where technology can create hyper-abundant resources?

Why pay for dinner, when dinner is so abundant that the entire concept of payment is ludicrous? Does anyone charge you to breathe? No? Why? Because the atmoshpere is too plentiful and people would laugh at you if you tried to charge them for breathing.

Someday, humans are going to laugh at the concept of paying for anything for the same reason. 3D printing and technology like it are both a blessing, and the liberation of, the human race.

As we sit back and use ATM machines every day, self checkout, automated phone systems, and have a society trained to be accustomed to little or no customer service we are shooting ourselves in the foot. With something like this craftsmanship will soon be a thing of the past, want a new cheap house push a button, want a dog house push a button, we will have a push button world with little jobs, little pride in ownership, craftsmanship, and individualism.

And if craftmenship is so important, why wouldn't people learn to become craftsmen just for the fun of it? Is that not what artists do?

a reply to: LewsTherinThelamon

I mean, could you imagine a world where technology can create hyper-abundant resources? Why pay for dinner, when dinner is so abundant that the entire concept of payment is ludicrous?

The first thing you have to realize is that 3-D printers do not produce anything, they utilize resources that are fed into them.

And if craftmenship is so important, why wouldn't people learn to become craftsmen just for the fun of it? Is that not what artists do?

After training artists and artisans for close to 2 decades, the majority of them go into it because they think it easy (or more specifically the higher education part of it is easy).

Does anyone charge you to breathe? No? Why? Because the atmoshpere is too plentiful and people would laugh at you if you tried to charge them for breathing.

People are already trying to charge people for the air they breath, just as they already do for water we drink and bathe in. What you are belittling is already happen.

If no one is buying anything, the monetary system crumbles. On the surface this does look like a negative thing, but it's really not. Each advancement in technology is just one step closer to a resource-based economy.

If you had most/all the resources would you give them away for free? The current structure of society doesn't prove this at all.

a reply to: lostbook

Pretty amazing stuff.

I'll be really impressed though, when they can print me a wife that looks like Jessica Alba...

a reply to: LewsTherinThelamon

This is usually the answer from someone who wants everything for freeeeeee. Who has no responsibility, that isn't interested in earning anything and having pride in ownership. For whatever your belief system is let me say it this way, earning your way through life has been a concept since day 2 and you or I will never see this crazy concept in our lifetimes. But hey what do I know I am just a old guy that has worked since I was 14 to have everything I have, and am proud to say so.

I don't need to go into detail randomtangetsrme did a pretty good job.

a reply to: Grimpachi

I don't see this as taking away more jobs than it will create.

Maybe because you are seeing it in a different light.

3D printers essentially cut out most of the personnel that were once considered essential. You'll still need prefabricators but not as many, which equals job losses, and you won't need manufacturers at all, which is more job losses.

Then there are the other jobs that could be affected-truck drivers would lose a lot of hours because the materials could be delivered in one trip instead of three, local retailers would suffer because materials would be purchased and fabricated at the printing site, and the labor force would be halved because these houses could be assembled like a Jigsaw puzzle and additional labor would not be required.

Yes the other trades would still have jobs to go to-plumbers, electricians, concretors and so forth-but they wouldn't need to expand their employee quota because these lego houses aren't time consuming and a company could spread their artisans far and wide.

However I will agree that this is a brilliant way to create affordable housing for the disadvantaged, but for every job created there will be more jobs lost. I've seen the effects of an automated industry and I've been affected by them personally.

originally posted by: lostbook

This news gets me thinkling about the potential for 3-D printing; I mean, the possibilities are really endless. I'm thinking we can build really large Spaceships to travel the Stars. I mean like really large Space-freighters. What says ATS?

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Size is not the solution to interstellar travel. If you managed to build a rocket the size of the moon, it will not be any much faster than much smaller rockets and worse, it will probably blow up before you reach the nearest star!

Manufacturing technology has never prevented us from reaching the stars....

It's our primitive space propulsion technology that has kept us from reaching the stars.


For example, if somehow people discovered faster-than-light warp drive back in the 1800's. We could easily build starships made of thick plate steel and riveted together (which would look pretty interesting with 19th century technology, brass and wood levers, anyone?). With a warp drive that could bend space time, the weight of the ship won't matter. It would accelerate the ship the same as a ship made entirely of carbon fiber composites.

I am a degree holder in Manufacturing Engineering, an RC fixed wing/helicopter hobbyist (I design my own flying machines using CAD using sound principles of aeronautics), and an amateur researcher/experimenter with "post-Newtonian" space propulsion systems - in other words, technology that could get us to the stars pretty soon, not to mention, pretty fast!

So I have a pretty good idea where we currently stand in our progress in trying to reach the stars. We're getting close, if only not due to rampant skepticism, harsh criticisms and general lack of interest. But honestly, if we got lucky, the technology could have been discovered as early as the late 19th century - a hundred years ago

A green house for very few dollars that can be mass produced...I think this is wonderful. Imagine what they will be able to do in 5, 10, 20 years. You will be able to pick out your house, your lot, and within a few days you can move in to it.