Concrete AM: An insight into the control of main parameters

Abstract

Following applications in other industrial sectors, the integration of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies in the production of architectural components has revealed a great potential to respond to the need of customisation and optimisation that the evolution of digital processes in architectural design has highlighted. This study establishes the foundations of a research on the application of cementitious based materials according to Material Extrusion techniques. The knowledge gathered from the investigations of the Advanced Ceramics Laboratory (ACL), as well as parallels to other exploratory projects in 3D Printing on Concrete, supports an insight on the main control parameters inherent to these processes, allowing through experimentation to list a set of perceived issues, particularly regarding the relationship between the material and the machine. In the absence of functional concrete extrusion equipment, the paper also describes the development of a custom laboratory-scale extrusion system that was used in the experimental tests.