An engineering company based in Shanghai, China, has created a 3D-printed five-story apartment building and a three-story mansion.
WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co.'s printer uses a mixture of ground construction and
industrial waste, CNET reported.
A huge printer (20 feet tall by 33 wide by 132 feet long) made the parts of the building at WinSun’s facility. Steel reinforcements and insulation are then added when the buildings are assembled on site, CNET said.
The company’s five-story apartment building and 11,840-square-foot villa are on display at Suzhou Industrial Park. The process reduces construction waste by 30 percent to 60 percent and reduces labor costs by 50 percent to 80 percent. The villa cost about $161,000 to build, CNET said.
The "ink," made of recycled construction materials, is flexible, self-insulating, and
resistant to strong earthquakes, 3DPrint.com reported.
The process uses a CAD design template and produces walls by laying down the frame and sides and then filling it in with a zig-zag pattern of material to
provide reinforcement, according to SiliconAngle.com.
The new construction method caught the attention of Twitter users.