Innovation

Watch: Live 3D Printing of a Residential House

The technology is likely to shake up the construction industry.

Updated on

September 16, 2023

Copenhagen-based developer of 3D construction printers, COBOD, stunned the world in February 2020 when it provided a live demonstration of its technology by 3D printing the walls of four small houses at the Bautec construction expo in Berlin, Germany.

The show was done using the BOD2 3D construction printer, placed at the stand of PERI, a producer of formwork and scaffolding, and the German supplier of COBOD’s 3D printers.

The demonstration was aimed to help COBOD provide a real life example of its construction 3D printing technology for the benefit of the visitors of the exhibition.

Henrik Lund-Nielsen, head of COBOD, said the live show would give viewers the real picture of what happens on the ground – away from manipulated content available online.

“It is so easy to video film a 3D construction printer in action and then edit out anything unplanned occurring during the printing to produce a nice video,” Nielsen said, adding that many videos out there contain “edited and manipulated content” that is far from reality.

The BOD2 3D printer was launched in 2018 as an upgrade to the BOD, which produced the first 3D printed building in Europe in 2017. The printer has the capacity to print buildings with measurements of 12m in width, 27m in length and 9m in height.

The size of the apparatus can be extended with modules in width, length and height of 2.5 meters. Its maximum capacity can handle 6 modules for width equalling 15 meters, and 4 modules in height, coming up to 10 meters, whereas there are no limitations for length.

Although the 3D printer can achieve maximum speed of 100 cm/second, limitations caused by materials and pumping equipment have so far condemned the device to a maximum speed of 40 cm/second.

COBOD, which has sold seven of its BOD2 construction 3D printers, says the device can produce three storey buildings in one go, with each storey capable of being more than 300 square meters in length.