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In-Depth Information
What would such a printer look like in action? On his laptop, Jeroen played
me a concept video showing a demonstration. On the screen, a large “print
head” laid down layer after layer to create a hive-shaped dome with wavy walls
and a pointy top. Part of the design concept for this particular structure in
the video demonstration were walls containing printed-in ventilation shafts.
“The intelligence will be contained in the design process,” said Jeroen. “As
design software becomes more sophisticated, it will be possible to 3D print
structures whose shape will be determined by the nature of its environment.”
Another way to think about this method would be that the design software
would act as a dynamic and responsive electronic blueprint “speaking” to the
3D printer in a closed feedback loop.
I learned that Jeroen is supervising a student project at the school to build a
3D printer large enough to print structures up to several meters in size. Since
such a printer is not commercially available, Jeroen and students are hacking a
large CNC machine and itting it with a 3D print head. They're tinkering with
the machine to create a print head that can swing and swoop freely in space.
Responsive 3D printing is probably 5 to 10 years from being reality, Jeroen
told me. I suspect that the physical construction of a large printer is the rela-
tively straightforward part of the project. Creating intelligent design software
that can respond and make good decisions on the spot will take longer.
Unlike a steel girder that's dropped into place by a construction crane, a 3D
printed structure could be made of custom blends of construction materials
adapted to the stresses and loads the structure is subjected to. Like a growing
bone that thickens when weight is placed on it, a 3D printed responsive bridge
could be thickened in response to real and simulated stress.
An article on the Fabbaloo blog, which follows personal manufacturing and
3D printing issues, put it this way: “Imagine girders that have strong areas
where they need to be strong and light in other areas—or even sparse sections
with no material at all. Every piece could be speciically made to provide the
best physical strength for its particular purpose in the building at the least
cost of materials.”
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Ideally, 3D printed structures could be made from locally available resources
such as sand or dirt. Intelligent design software could blend materials together,
a complicated art in and of itself. For responsive 3D printing to become a
reality, we would need better materials for construction and suficient com-
putational power to model and analyze the data very quickly and to adapt the
design in real time.
