Comments on: Mega-Scale 3D Printing Is Here

By: David Foster

David Foster — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:38:45 +0000

Re Scipio’s comment, there is an awful lot of hype on 3-D printing going on these days, much of it by people who know nothing about existing manufacturing processes and have made no attempt to think through what would actually be involved in producing various commonplace products via 3-D printing.

I bet if someone were to create a video of a common, garden-variety CNC milling machine at work, and attach it to a press release calling it a hot new technology, he could get a lot of media coverage…in business as well as general media.

By: CMOT

CMOT — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 20:59:42 +0000

For a real world revolutionary construction techique, do a little search for “robotic shotcrete”. A much bigger deal than this, but there’s no PR firm doing all the work for the media …

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:51:48 +0000

This system alone is more of an experiment or gimmick than anything (an interesting one, admittedly). I definitely think automated construction of buildings, including high-rises, is feasible in the near-to-mid term. The key is a combination of approaches, including the automated assembly of prefabricated components (steel framing, for instance) and additive manufacturing techniques like this.

I guess you could LENS the framing up too, but it seems pointless and wasteful considering that foundries can churn that stuff out at a rate of many feet a minute.

Right now there’s a lot of obsession with 3D printing as a solution to everything, and a lot of people are boosting it just because it’s new and whizz-bang. Others, correctly noting that it is inefficient and impractical for many industrial processes, dismiss it altogether. This argument between “best thing since sliced bread!” and “practically useless novelty” is common with new technologies, and both sides are very mistaken.

By: Marc Pisco

Marc Pisco — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:27:54 +0000

I like the “safety” bit. Sure, I guess unemployment is safer than working.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:14:46 +0000

The picture, of course, shows conventional construction and inadvertently reveals a problem: strength of materials. Low-rise buildings can be (and were) built out of air-dried clay bricks (à la the Exodus story). But high-rises, meaning anything over two stories, require stronger materials. 3D printing won't scale up unless there is a major breakthrough in materials, which is not likely.