Characteristic of materials for the 3D printed building constructions by additive printing

Abstract

Three dimensional printing is a promising new technology to erect construction objects. Around the world in every moment a new prototypes constructions are made by using this method. Three dimensional printing is taken into account as technology which can be used to print constructions in automated way on the Moon or Mars. The raw materials, which can be used with three dimensional printing have to fulfil basic requirements for those which are used in construction. That means that components of printing mortars are made from ingredients easily accessible in area nearby construction site and can be reusable. The cost of printing building objects due to that requirements is comparable to costs of traditional building, which are currently available. However additive techniques of printing needs a dedicated mortars for printer supplying. Characteristic for such mortars is: setting time, compressive strength, followability in the printing system, shape stability of every printed layer, controlling the hydration rate to ensure bonding with the subsequent layer, reusable capabilities, easily accessible raw materials, cost of such mixtures shouldn’t be too high in order to keep 3D printing competitive for traditional ways of building, mortar components should be recyclable and printing process should not influence negatively on an environment and people. All properties of printing mortars are determined by the device for additive application method. In this paper review of available materials used for three dimensional printing technology at construction site is presented. Presented materials were analysed in terms of requirements for building materials technology. Due to the lack of detailed information’s in available literature, regarding to the properties of raw materials, the results of this analysis may be used in the designing of new concrete mixtures for the use in three-dimensional printing technology for construction.