An intelligent extrusion system for additive manufacturing in construction

Additive manufacturing (AM), popularly known as ‘3D printing’, is a manufacturing technique that builds physical 3D objects layer by layer using materials such as polymers, metals, and composites. The widespread popularity of additive manufacturing in most industries ranging from biomedical to aerospace suggests a revolution in manufacturing which have recently emerged in the construction sector and large-scale printing due to its zero waste, design freedom and contribution towards a circular economy.

One of the main problems in current state of the art AM printers that they lack any sort of feedback to keep an eye on the process, thus, causing a lot of failed prints and weak structures. This research aims to develop an intelligent extrusion system that would allow us to 3D print recycled cementations materials, to reduce the amount of waste and better automate the construction process.

So far, a platform of a gantry system and various extrusion systems have been developed in house to 3D print sustainable concrete mixes. The final phase is to add monitoring system and train it to detect various errors that occur while printing. This will allow the system to adaptively correct any errors that might happen and ensure the perfect layer every time.