B1 - 3D printing in the manufacturing industry and dwellings

Desktop Metal is a company who is currently developing 3D printing techniques for mass manufacturing and smaller studio system for companies to produce small prototypes. The company has professors from MIT who have been working with 3D printing since 1989. They raised over US$210 million to develop their 3D metal printers. Their production system for mass manufacturing is the product that has great potential to revolutionize the market for 3D printing. It can manufacture metal parts up to 100 times quicker than the laser-based alternatives that are mainly used on the market today. Furthermore, the material costs are up to 20 times lower [1]. This technology I believe will make a difference on metal manufacturing market and will adapt to other manufacturing processes as well. It is done without tooling and the material waste will be less. This is positive when also considering sustainability in the building industry.

When 3D printers for prototypes as the one developed by Desktop Metal [1] are becoming more widespread both architects and engineers must be up to date on how to use 3D modelling programs, so they easily can produce prototypes of their designs. Especially some architectural firm still only use hand drawn drawings. If they want to keep up with technology, they must start using 3D programs like Revit and Rhino Grasshopper [2].

Besides 3D printing for manufacturing different materials, e.g. metal, 3D printing has also been used to build houses. An example is a 380 square feet dwelling build (3D printed) in 48 hours in Texas by the companies Icon and New Story. The cost of the house is around $10,000 for the concrete. This is an easy and cost-effective way to build houses for the nearly 1 billion people around the world that doesn’t have a shelter to sleep in. The concept is later in 2019 headed to El Salvador to construct a community of 100 houses for people with a low income. They will pay $30 per month in wage over the next 10 years, which is more than 11 times lower than the average rental wage in the rural El Salvador [3]. Besides creating construction jobs in El Salvador, the article also argues, that getting people into shelters also helps getting them into jobs quicker. The 3D printing of homes at low costs can help start up a community [3]. I believe that we will be seeing a lot more of 3D printing of dwellings in the future, which I think is only a good thing. This can also prevent less injuries on the construction site and create more precisely build dwellings that might have a longer life span and less maintenance.  

References:

[1] Blain, Loz. 100x faster, 10x cheaper: 3D metal printing is about to go mainstream. NEW ATLAS. 27 July 2017.

[2] Christine. Software For Architects: The Must-Have Tools Of The Trade. Software. 12 November 2018.

[3] Lee, Dave. 3D-printed homes turn sludge into shelter. BBC News. 15 March 2018.

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Comments on others:

Gabriel Grajewski:

Your blog about AI, sociology and job you write about the downside of automation that includes job losses, especially in the lower and middle classes and you do not believe that this part of the society will take the necessary education that will enable them to get new jobs. I am not sure that it will only be the lower and middle class that will lose their jobs. What about structural engineers and finance people? I think that AI will create opportunities to optimize their jobs as well. Machine learning for e.g. I believe in the future will take over jobs in the financial sector. But I don’t think that we should be afraid of this development but embrace it because I think it will be able to ensure that buildings e.g. will be built safer.

Albert Hanan:

I found your post very interesting to read! AI can be used in many ways where some are more transparent as you write about. I think that many people don’t think about how much monitoring is going on, on their smart phones and different social medias. The fact that a machine learning program is incorporated in Facebook and monitors everything you do on the internet can to me seem a bit scary. I think it is important to use AI in a proper manner and not intrude in people’s personal lives. I heard a story from a friend whose friend and boyfriend talked about breaking up. The next day they both got advertisements on couples counseling. This means that some AI machine learning had been monitoring their conversation to give them those advertisements. To me this use of AI is too much. I believe that we should definitely embrace AI but there are right and wrong ways to do so. I believe that we should use it to optimize and streamline work but not interfere in people’s personal lives!

Christian Tait:

I think that the 3D printing of materials is a really interesting topic. When you start to 3D print materials less material waste will also be produced, which is a positive thing, when you think about sustainability in the construction industry. Programs for parametric design, such as Rhino Grasshopper can be used in the design phase before 3D printing components (e.g. for a shell construction). This is a tool to design and construct new and complex shapes.