• Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      From the description in the article it doesn't sound like 3D printing in the conventional sense of extruding a filament through a heated element but rather the use of automated construction vehicles with conventional building materials.

      More like building a dam using CNC rather than 3D printing, but the analogy of 3D printing is probably reasonably good in communicating the concept.

      • hypercube [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        imo all concrete construction is 3d printing. You extrude a (wet) filament, it hardens into a shape. That's printing, baby

      • FidelCashflow [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Most 3D printers run of modified CNC code to my knowledge. It's close enough that it's fine to use like this.

        The gimmick is that unless china really stepped it up you still need a pretty big crew to mind everything

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The gimmick is that unless china really stepped it up you still need a pretty big crew to mind everything

          That's inevitably how these things are right? A new technique is almost always more resource intensive until it can be improved through repetition and scale to be cheaper and more efficient.

          Certainly seems like an okay way of dealing with a potentially declining population in the coming decades through automation.

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      there are already forms of 3D printing that work with cement and the like and are used to build houses, roads etc., although this seems to be happening on a much larger scale and with a higher degree of automation.

    • kristina [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I read through the paper and the big benefits that they're looking to implement are removal of workplace injuries related to heavy equipment use, like jolting and vibration of the body which can effect your bones