Japanese construction 3D printing company Shimizu Corporation introduces a new construction 3D printer.
With a material spray simulator as the key selling point, the Spray-based 3D concrete printing system can manufacture large, curved reinforced components.
A nine-degree-of-freedom gantry robot with the material spray simulator enables verification of sprayed-material behavior in advance.
This material spray simulator was jointly developed with the Computational Engineering and Robotics Lab (CERLAB), led by Professor Kenji Shimada of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
In concrete construction, 3D printing is expected to move into practical use, and field applications have progressed primarily through material extrusion printing, in which cementitious materials are deposited layer by layer as they are extruded downward. However, this method makes it difficult to integrate rebars into the printed layers, thereby limiting its applicability to reinforced structural components.
Spray-based printing, which forms structures by spraying cementitious materials, is better suited to producing reinforced structural components. At the same time, the complexity of printer motion control has made it difficult to ensure sufficient fabrication accuracy, presenting a key technical challenge.
In the newly developed system, printing control parameters are determined by using a material spray simulator to derive optimal nozzle paths, spray distance, angle, speed, material discharge volume, and related conditions. This approach improves printing accuracy while minimizing defect rates. The gantry robot used for printing consists of a seven-degree-of-freedom arm suspended from a two-axis XY motion mechanism mounted atop a portal-type frame.
The printable area spans 6 meters in depth, 4 meters in width, and 3 meters in height. From the nozzle at the arm tip, material can be sprayed in multiple directions across a wide range, allowing it to fill even the interior of reinforced assemblies. In demonstration tests, the system successfully fabricated a twisted curved wall, with both the lower and upper layers projecting outward from the center, measuring 2.5 meters in height, in just four hours.
Information on the commercial use of this 3D printer has not yet been provided.
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