It’s sometimes easy to forget, with all the private advancements, that the public sector is also making massive advancements in 3D printing. The US Army Core of Engineers just patented a new 3D printable concrete composite. This enables them to print stronger structures and reduce production time.
While previous forms of construction have attempted to use regular concrete, it’s not always efficient. It tends to clog the machinery due to the sand, gravel and stone components. To remedy this, the USACE, under the department of defence, created a mixture of the various elements and a binding agent. It serves as a far more efficient way to 3D print buildings.
Improving Concrete 3D Printing
As shown in the picture above, there are two main components, the solid mix and the liquid admixture. One layer of the solid mix comprises of clay, fly ash (coal grains) and silica fumes. These combine with the aggregate (sand, gravel, stone etc.) and the binding agent to form the full solid mix. The binding agent increases the flow-time and improves the time the concrete takes to set.
The liquid admixture includes a set of chemicals and fluids usually added to concrete to improve its flow and level of viscosity for rapid pumping. This includes chemicals that reduce the cracking and size shrinkage upon drying, along with a plasticizer for reducing plasticity of the mix.
Due to these changes, the concrete mix does not need modification and has more desirable properties overall. It can also provide high structural strength, according to USACE. This is largely because it is very useful for making reinforcing mesh layers. As is often the case, public sector inventions and patents become available for private use, so it’s not hard to see companies like Apis Cor making use of this same formula in their operations soon.
Featured Image courtesy of Patent Yogi.