3BUILD – First 3D Printed Structure in Greece

Digital fabrication, including construction of buildings with use of 3D printers is gaining significant momentum for the construction sector. Benefits such as free form architecture, reduction of building time, labor costs and waste material, freedom of geometry can be taken advantage in such building techniques. 3D Printing Concrete (3DCP) is a wet manufacturing process where layers of extruded mortar are bound by successive material deposition. Most common equipment for this type of application are the gantry printers, which are based on the cartesian robotic systems technology. 3BUILD is the research project, co-funded by the “Ereyno-Dimiourgo-Kainotomo” program by the Greek Ministry of Development, with participation from TITAN, SIKA, COS and NTUA. The project main objective is the design and construction of a gantry type 3D printer and furthermore the use of the printer for the construction of a structure of dimensions up to 8 × 8 × 3 m. Development of works for the certain project included the design and construction of a middle-sized printer and printing of 2 m high structures of various shapes, investigation of sensitivities of mortar properties to different printing parameters (printing speed, printing geometry, layer dimensions) and relevant adjustments, the design and final construction of the full scale 3D printer and all challenges encountered and resolved before finally printing in real scale.