3D Concrete Printing
Gantry Concrete 3D Printer
A gantry printer, which has an effective print size of 1.8 m x 1.7 m x 1.5 m, is the larger-scale 3D concrete printer. It has capability to print as fast as 80 mm/s. It has circular nozzles of 10, 20, 30, and 40 mm opening to print different filament sizes. The extrusion of concrete is driven by a stepper motor. There is a 60 – liter discharge capacity mixer that can mix and supply concrete continuously to the print head.
Desktop Printer
A customized BCN3D desktop paste printer is used as the smaller size 3D concrete printer. The movement of parts is controlled by stepper motors, has a head that moves along the X – Z axis and a print bed that moves along the Y axis. It has the capacity to print at up to 100 mm/s. The extruder can be modified with the required nozzle opening, size, and type, while the main barrel is designed to be 35 mm in diameter.
Paste and Fluid Extrusion Setup
This setup helps to understand extrusion during printing in the desktop printer. The setup is used with MTS Exceed system (described later) to understand the force vs volume extrusion from the dye system, for different mixes and print velocities. The barrel is the same as that used in the desktop printer and can be modified to have different nozzle opening, size, and type.
