Japanese construction company Shimizu Tests 3D printed concrete construction

(Construction) – Japanese construction company Shimizu Corporation has developed a 3D printer for construction that can build full-scale structures at the construction site.

Japanese construction company Shimizu Tests 3D printed concrete construction.

The printer consists of a gantry frame that moves horizontally on rails and a material extrusion printing device that stacks the printed material by moving the nozzle. The 3D printer laminates a fiber-reinforced cement composite material developed by the company to create a 3D curved formwork that also serves as an exterior component.

“Shimz Robo-Printer” was developed in cooperation with Hiroshima-based industrial component maker Kitagawa Corporation. The gantry-shaped frame moves on rails, moving the nozzle up, down, left, and right as it laminates the printed material. The forming area is 20 meters deep, 4.5 meters wide, and 5.1 meters high, with a speed of up to 10 centimeters per second. The experimental construction was carried out at Shimizu’s training facility being constructed in Koto-ku, Tokyo. The concrete wall columns were constructed using buried formwork (20 meters deep, 4.5 meters high, 80 mm thick), which also served as exterior components. After the steel frames and rebars were assembled in place, the nozzle rotated around the perimeter to stack the material, and concrete was repeatedly poured inside. Compared to the use of rectangular formwork, the amount of concrete used was reduced by approximately 10%. (2022/09/30)