Strategies Towards Large-Scale 3D Printing Without Size-Constraints (2024-05)¶

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been prooundly changing the production mode o traditional industries. However, this technique is usually limited to metre-scale abrication, which prevents large-scale 3D printing (LS3DP) applications such as the manuacturing o buildings, aircrat, ships, and rockets. LS3DP aces great challenges, particularly, it not only requires conronting problems not yet solved by conventional 3D printing, such as the inability to print unctional structures due to limitations by single-material manuacturing, but also needs to overcome the size eect limitation o large-scale printing. Here, we systematically review the state o the art in the integration o materials and technologies in LS3DP. We also demonstrate some disruptive engineering cases o LS3DP in the eld o construction. The challenges and strategies or overcoming size constraints to achieve LS3DP o unctional structures are discussed, including multiunctional 3D printing processes rom nano- to large-scale and large-scale 4D printing processes, diverse printable materials and sustainable structures, horizontal and vertical sizeindependent printers, collaborative and intelligent control o the entire process, and extreme environment printing. These strategies can provide tremendous opportunities or the ully automated, intelligent, and unmanned production o these dierent material megastructures and internal multiscale multiunctional components such as buildings/structures, aerospace vehicles, and marine equipment.