Technology Innovation Center for 3D Printing of Concrete

• The Technology Innovation Center for 3D Printing of Concrete (TIC3DP), established in 2022, is a part of the Structural Engineering Group, Department of Civil Engineering. The overarching goal of this center is to explore the modern automated construction technology enabled by 3D printing. The lab houses a laboratory scale gantry-based 3D concrete printer manufactured by Tvasta..
Brief specification of the equipment:

This gantry-based 3D concrete printer is equipped with a 3-axis nozzle allowing 3D printing of laboratory-scale concrete/mortar structures on a flat surface using extrusion technology. The printer has a build volume measuring 1.0 m (L) x 1.0 m (W) x 0.5 m (H), and the printing speed ranges from 0 to 100 mm/s. A separate nozzle arrangement for concrete and mortar mix is present in the system with the 360-degree rotation. Three types of nozzles (square, rectangular and circular) are available for printing, and their size varies from 10 mm to 40 mm. The width of each printed layer can range from 3 mm to 20 mm. Different instruments are available for pumping the concrete mix (with aggregate size up to 10 mm), and mortar mix (with aggregate size below 2 mm). They are respectively called extrusion pump and mortar pump. This printer has a complete CNC control mechanism and a fully integrated concrete mixing and pumping system.



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