drylin® E linear robots from igus® for 3D printer in the XXL format

A house made by a 3D printer? This is no longer a dream. The façade of the Dutch "Europe Building" in the Amsterdam Marine Quarter was partly built in this way. The architecture firm DUS presented the idea and also provided a mobile 3D printer for such work. For the construction of the facade elements, the architects used both the gantry systems and the engineering support of the motion plastics® specialist igus®.

Everything started small - even the 3D printing. This applies not only to the market share of this production technology, but also for the size of the printed components. Initially, there were small prototypes, orthodontic aids, and designer jewellery, which were manufactured with generative processes. Today the 3D printer already produces motor vehicle components and - at igus® - customised wear-resistant Tribo-components. And it goes even bigger: the Dutch architecture firm has realised the idea of building entire houses in this way – with a mobile 3D printer in XXL format, which is housed in a shipping container.

Eco-friendly, varied and practical

What seems exotic or a marketing gimmick at first glance, on closer inspection is not only charming but really has a lot of arguments in its favour. In this way the load-bearing structures can be manufactured from plastic recyclate, which is also a sustainable enterprise. Construction site logistics considerably simplified: The elements are printed on site, placed on the spot and filled with concrete. And while cost-effective prefabricated architecture looked almost always boring and uniform so far, now a great freedom of design has opened up. In addition, the architects of DUS say, this process can be used very well for the quick construction of new houses in disaster areas.
To transform the idea into reality, DUS founded the company Actual. The aim of Actual is to enable the owner to design or adapt building components to customer requirements on a digital platform, which are then manufactured on site using XXL 3D printers. Under the term "Kamermaker 2.0" (literally "Room maker 2.0") this idea is very popular in the Dutch media. It was also reported worldwide and was even presented to US President Barack Obama during a visit to Amsterdam.

igus® as engineering partner for house construction

In the spirit of modern networking, Actual has sought for partners to help the "Kamer Maker 2.0" become an instant success. As one of these partners, igus® has aided in the design of the mobile 3D printer. The first generation had a separate room for the control and could therefore produce "only" parts up to a size of 2.00 x 2.00 x 3.00 metres. Thus, there was need for improvement, both in precision and in the printing speed.

Print head moves with the igus® room linear robot

In the planning the engineers made use of the modular system of the igus® multi-axis gantries. They are available as line, flat and room linear robots for one, two and three axes, and depart from predefined surfaces and spaces. In this case, a room linear robot is used, in which the x- and y-axis have been implemented with drylin® toothed belt units and the z-axis with drylin® lead screw and lead screw nut systems.

Precise linear drives - engineering support

Current project: Canal house from the mobile 3D printer

With the second generation of the "Kamermaker 2.0", Actual can print larger elements with high precision and greater speed. The igus® linear robot system was instrumental in this. Joe Platt, Head of Mechanical Engineering at Actual: "igus® gave us excellent support, and the gantry proved to be the best in practice." “
 
Among the projects undertaken by Actual at present is the "3D print Canal House", which is currently being built on a town canal in Amsterdam. The construction site is public and already has had more than 40,000 visitors. If you want to see a 3D printer building a house "live" in the XXL format, you can do so in Amsterdam at Asterweg 49.

Here, you can find the products used

Here you can find further interesting applications from very different areas of use: