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3D printing could transform home building
CBS News ^ | January 22, 2014

Posted on 01/22/2014 10:29:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Building a 2,500-square-foot house in less than 20 hours? It sounds like a tall tale, but a professor at the University of Southern California says it is absolutely possible. He would toss out traditional building practices and replace them with a single 3D printer.

It's called contour crafting, creator Behrokh Khoshnevis, the director of the manufacturing engineering graduate program USC, tells CBS News.

"Construction the way its done today is very wasteful," he explained in a presentation at TEDxOjai. "Our solution benefits from advanced technology...it is essentially a way of streamlining the process of construction by benefiting from the experience we have gained in the field of manufacturing."

The 3D printer lays out concrete and interlocking steel bars as it builds a structure. Khoshnevis says that the printer can handle the plumbing, electrical networks and flooring for multi-story buildings....

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: 3dprinters; 3dprinting; construction; housing

1 posted on 01/22/2014 10:29:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If we can 3D-print a better home, could we possibly look forward to 3D-printing a better government?


2 posted on 01/22/2014 10:33:54 PM PST by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: coloradan

Only if we can 3D-print working brains for the liberal voters.


3 posted on 01/22/2014 10:38:18 PM PST by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That must be on BIG printer.


4 posted on 01/22/2014 10:48:39 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: coloradan

Maybe that starts with 3d printing guns.


5 posted on 01/22/2014 10:53:15 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: gleeaikin

6 posted on 01/22/2014 10:57:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Back in the 60s Robert Heinlein pointed this. Out. He wrote imagine what a car would cost, and how long it would take to build if like a house, a bunch of raw material was transported to your location and put together from scratch there....


7 posted on 01/22/2014 10:59:32 PM PST by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms in Dixie!)
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To: gleeaikin

“That must be on BIG printer.”

There is an animation on the linked page.

It looks very feasible. Save time, labor, materials, etc.

The equipment looks fairly straightforward, and not too “big.”

The term “3D Printing” is misleading. It is more like an automatic building machine.


8 posted on 01/22/2014 11:02:15 PM PST by truth_seeker (Nissan)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting, but it’s probably more cost-effective to use the “printer” to construct prefabricated house pieces, and then truck the completed pieces to the building site and assemble them, rather than truck the printing assembly around.

The thing I’m waiting for is for prefabrication or other automated assembly to actually start reducing house prices. Right now, a nice custom prefabricated costs as much if not more than a regular stick-built (and I’m not talking “Palm Harbor”; I mean built to the same standards as houses like Lennar and so on).


9 posted on 01/22/2014 11:28:54 PM PST by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: truth_seeker
The term “3D Printing” is misleading. It is more like an automatic building machine.

Or CNC construction machine.
10 posted on 01/22/2014 11:38:21 PM PST by rottndog ('Live Free Or Die' Ain't just words on a bumber sticker...or a tagline.)
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To: Little Pig

3D printer can build a house in 20 hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehnzfGP6sq4

Fully-customized, modular solar house is 3D printed prefab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R1CBFBxuew

3D print your house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr3lN1nSj_0


11 posted on 01/22/2014 11:41:03 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Why Design Now?: Contour Crafting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yv-IWdSdns

3D printing: Architectural Modelling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gbrhsFH7I8

3D printed ROOM looks like beautiful interior of a cathedral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bKh-YDh_DE

New 3D Printer can build a House in just 24 hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TK8SrPgIpc


12 posted on 01/22/2014 11:55:39 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
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To: Little Pig

Palm Harbor also makes modulars.


13 posted on 01/23/2014 12:10:53 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Palm Harbor isn’t all that much better than a trailer. It’s the “upscale” modular/prefab stuff that ought to be cheaper than it is (and Palm Harbor isn’t all that much cheaper than stickbuilt either).


14 posted on 01/23/2014 12:22:30 AM PST by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: Little Pig

I wasn’t touting their quality, merely saying that they do build modular, as did Oakwood way back when I worked for them. We had a triple-wide manufactured that wasn’t half bad. Sunken living room, gourmet kitchen, nice master, etc. Sold a few of them to snowbirds.


15 posted on 01/23/2014 12:29:09 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I surmise 3D printing may be to manufacturing what the computer was to data processing, or communications, to a very strong degree.


16 posted on 01/23/2014 12:36:54 AM PST by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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To: daniel1212

The first 3D printed organ — a liver — is expected in 2014
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3105585/posts

A bold new future for construction materials approaches (Self-forming 4-D skyscrapers?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3102415/posts

Lomiko’s Graphene 3D Lab Files Patent for Multiple Material Printer Filament
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3113868/posts


17 posted on 01/23/2014 12:39:35 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I doubt if I’ll ever understand what a 3d printer is.

However it works, lots of Mexicans are going to have to learn how to use them if they wanta’ keep building houses.


18 posted on 01/23/2014 2:05:25 AM PST by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

But...but...what about the Mexicans?


19 posted on 01/23/2014 4:15:03 AM PST by warchild9
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To: warchild9

They can run the building machines. . .in Mexico.


20 posted on 01/23/2014 4:41:10 AM PST by Salgak (http://catalogoftehburningstoopid.blogspot.com 100% all-natural snark !)
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