3D printing of houses is faster and requires fewer building materials, claims ICON, which is currently completing the construction of the last of a hundred houses in the city of Georgetown, Texas. The Vulcan printer used for this purpose is over 13.7 meters wide and weighs 4.75 tons, Reuters reported on Thursday.
It takes about three weeks to print a single-story, three- or four-bedroom home. “Where once it took five different crews to put up the walls of a house, we now have one crew and a robot,” said project manager Conner Jenkins.
The price of the house, depending on the square footage, ranges from $450,000 (PLN 1.8 million) to almost $600,000 (PLN 2.4 million).
The world's largest development of 3D-printed homes has been built in Texas.Reuters
How do you print a house?
The first part of the process of building a house is mixing concrete powder, water, sand and other additives. Then the mass is pumped into a printer. A nozzle emerging from it squeezes the mixture out like toothpaste, applying layer after layer along a pre-programmed path. The creators of the project compare the texture of the wall to corduroy.
The walls of one of the houses were 3D printed.Reuters
The walls are designed to be resistant to water, mold, termites, and extreme weather conditions, and they’re so strong they even protect against wireless internet connections.
Homeowners will need to use mesh internet routers, which broadcast signals from multiple devices located throughout the building.
A bird's eye view of the estateReuters
Developers said just over a quarter of the 100 homes in the Georgetown development have been sold so far. ICON was commissioned by NASAto develop construction systems for building landing sites, shelters and other facilities on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
Main image source: Reuters