3D Printing Concrete Incoroprating Environmentally Friendly Materials (2021-05)¶

The 3D Printing has been introduced worldwide; however only limited countries have the luxury of using the 3D Printers in the construction industry. Even though the traditional ways of construction are being updated every day; using 3D printers in the construction of buildings have numerous advantages than building traditionally. The 3D one floor buildings could be printed in only 24 hours with almost no man work needed on site, which gives the 3D industry a huge advantage of finishing a large number of housings with less time and cost. “In 2014, the Chinese WinSun company claimed to have built 10 basic houses in less than a day, with the area and cost of each one being about 195 m2 and US $4800, respectively” which is considered as one of the most recent and largest progresses in the history of 3D concrete printing technology [10]. In the light of its advantages, 3D printers could help the governments worldwide in the disasters happening. The massive explosion that took place in Beirut, the disastrous flood in Sudan, the war devastation in Syria, etc. These catastrophes could all be quickly relieved by using 3D Printers in building temporary accommodations in the most time and cost-efficient way. Not only could the 3D Printers help in providing aid to the devastated countries, but it could as well help in the Covid-19 pandemic which has invaded the world and stopped all the ongoing projects. Due to Covid-19 the number ofworkers on site has to be minimized to ensure social distancing and commit to the health precautions given by the World Health Organization. 3D printers could use as little as one worker on site to monitor the printer while building and plug it off if there was any problem on site which enables the companies to complete their projectswithoutworkers and with the needed safety precautions. The limitations of3D Printers could be seen in its limited height of buildings, 3D buildings are typically 1–2 floors which does not give the companies the ability to use 3D printers in mass constructions. However, manufacturers are updating 3D printers to be able to print multi-storey buildings. According to Current progress of 3D concrete printing technologies, “WinSun” company was able to print a 5-story building in Shanghai using recycled construction waste and only one printer in 2015 to be considered as the tallest 3D printed building. “The company claimed to 3D print the walls and other components of the structure offsite and then assembled them together on-site” [10]. Nowadays, the greenhouse effect has become a crucial concern for the world as it is affecting the atmosphere, temperature, creatures and etc. The greenhouse effect depends on the amount of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. CO2 is one of the most crucial greenhouse gases due to its large amount. According to CO2 Emission Reduction in the Cement Industry, “The cement industry is one of the largest carbon emitting industrial sectors in the European Union (EU) and in the world” [8]. Therefore, this paper is aiming to investigate the possibility of exploring environmentally friendly materials in 3D concrete printing.