Eric Hunting has had it with the way that people are going about 3D printing buildings. In a recent Open Manufacturing thread on Google Groups, he’s started working out ways to improve 3D house printing.
Hunting’s two main concerns about 3D construction are related to the materials being used and the proposed methods of construction. For instance, USC’s Contour Crafting group and a recent Chinese endeavour have focused on 3D printing with concrete, which Hunting believes introduces some unnecessary weight restrictions. Additionally, the industry’s focus on printing of entire buildings on location makes 3D construction cost prohibitive for anyone without access to a lot of money.
As for printing materials, Hunting proposes the use of recycled composites. He suggests that such material, would yield compostable houses with the look, feel, workability, sound characteristics, and even smell of natural wood.
And, rather than 3D print entire, large-scale buildings on location, Hunting discusses the possibility of 3D printing micro homes, potentially using a robotic arm or a‘robocrane.’” With a robocrane, Hunting believes that individuals with less capital would be able to construct small building components in a two car garage. It seems that Ohio University may already have a patent for something similar to what Hunting is suggesting, though that doesn’t mean that he can’t pursue it non-commercially.
Regardless of the patent, Hunting brings up an important point. Will 3D construction be constrained by a prerequisite of large capital investment? Or can the Maker community develop some low-cost open source solutions to 3D print buildings in order for the technology to “be applied in the places and situations this technology might most benefit”?
