–with 3D printing technology

By Cassandra Khan
OWING to the high demand for houses, a private company, Maraiko Bay, has imported a three-dimensional (3D) printer, which it will use to build model homes for the upcoming ‘Building Expo’ at the Providence Stadium, and, subsequently, construct houses at reduced costs.

Chief Executive Officer of Maraiko Bay, Leo Powell, who accompanied Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues and other officials on a inspection of the exhibition site at Providence, said the company decided to examine the opportunity of 3D printing, which is not only for Maraiko Bay, but also for the national housing projects and other future projects such as Silica City, highways and drains.

He related that they will be printing, live, during the three-day exposition to show that within three days, a house plan could be completely printed by the machine.
“We hope to give you guys a well-deserved display of what modern technology can provide in the urban development housing sector,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, Minister Rodrigues related that the printer, while on display at the ‘expo’, will print the ministry’s 600-square-foot low-income model home.
“So, the machine; it’s a simple process, where you have the blueprint, and you put that chip into the machine, and the machine automatically is programmed to print out that particular house. So, that house will be constructed here, or, as we say in construction terminology, printed using this technology over the three days that the public will be here,” Minister Rodrigues said.

As the minister went on to explain, if a person tries to build the exact house as the printer, using traditional methods, it would cost them far more than it would, using the machine. She said, too, that the machine is at an international standard, in terms of pound per square inch (PSI) measurement, and even though it costs more, the overall factors such as time-saving and costing would be saved, as well as human resources.

“It is my assumption that this machine will do more than just be a part of the housing sector; I anticipate we’re going to have to get more of this in the country, because this particular one can print a two-storey house, but they also have machines that, when configured, can go as high as four storeys,” Minister Rodrigues said, adding:

“They can even be involved in the expansion of the private sector. Big construction of apartment buildings and hotels and so on, that they can eventually get to. So, they’ll play a lot bigger role, not only in the housing sector, but in the infrastructure sector, possibly in the construction of concrete drains and roads and highways and so on.”

Noting also that the process will be much faster than the traditional construction methods, Minister Rodrigues said, “In the housing sector, we have a very big mandate in terms of house lots and housing construction, and so we’ll need to employ the use of modern technology, in order to ensure that we deliver on our targets, not only in the housing sector, but in terms of infrastructure, generally, for the future of our country.”

Chief Operations Officer of Black Buffalo 3D, Todd Grimm said that with this machine, an overall 20 to 30 per cent cost reduction will be seen in the construction of houses.
“When it prints a house, it doesn’t print doors and windows and so on, but what it does is it prints the exterior and interior walls of that facility. So, what you’re able to do is take a foundation that’s pre-existing, and go on top of that and print a home,” Grimm said.

He related that up to 1,200 square feet can be printed in about 20 to 30 hours, but the machine’s daily limit is 16 hours.
“That home would actually take about US$13,000 worth of concrete materials to print, which is quite a substantial reduction than what you see from a normal home,” Grimm said, adding: “Not only that, but the waste factor that is also built from normal construction is extremely high. This type of waste that we save is reusable, because you can recycle concrete and reuse it.”

He said that the reduction in waste from regular construction to 3D printing of a house is 60 to 40 per cent.
The strength of the normal concrete masonry units (CMU) block wall, he said, has a pound per square inch (PSI) of about 2,800 to 3,200 in compression, but the printed walls were tested and proven to be 7,500 PSI after 15 days, and 10,000 PSI after a full cure in 28 days, which, he said is as strong as a highway.