第1716期:3D Printer Builds Large Home in Texas

A huge 3D printer is working to create what is believed to be the first two-story home built with the technology in the United States. The home is currently taking shape in Houston, Texas. The 3D printing machine working on the project weighs more than 12 tons. The 3D printer is using concrete to produce the home, which will be about 371 square meters. Some parts of the home will also have wood elements. Leaders of the project said the process is expected to take about 330 hours of printing.

一台巨大的 3D 打印机正在努力建造据信是美国第一座采用该技术建造的两层楼住宅。该住宅目前正在得克萨斯州休斯敦成型。用于该项目的 3D 打印机重量超过 12 吨。 3D 打印机使用混凝土制作房屋，面积约为 371 平方米。房屋的某些部分也会有木质元素。该项目的负责人表示，该过程预计需要大约 330 小时的打印时间。

Leslie Lok is the architect who designed the three-bedroom home and who leads the design studio HANNAH. Lok told Reuters news agency that in the design process, the team had to think about more than the design of the house and how it would be used. “We also design the actual print path, like how the printer will print, where it starts and where it stops,” Lok said. The project is a two-year cooperative effort by HANNAH, building company PERI 3D and CIVE, which provided engineering support.

Leslie Lok 是设计这栋三居室住宅的建筑师，也是 HANNAH 设计工作室的负责人。 Lok 告诉路透社，在设计过程中，团队不得不考虑的不仅仅是房子的设计以及如何使用。 “我们还设计了实际的打印路径，例如打印机的打印方式、开始位置和停止位置，”Lok 说。该项目由 HANNAH、建筑公司 PERI 3D 和 CIVE 合作完成，历时两年，CIVE 提供了工程支持。

Lok said since the printer does most of the work, fewer workers are needed at the building site. She said the effort only requires four to five people to oversee the 3D printing process. Lok said: “One of the benefits is also, it takes a lot of the heavy lifting, the labor” from human workers. Concrete is a very strong material to use in home building and can survive hurricanes, heavy storms and other severe weather.

Lok 说，由于打印机完成了大部分工作，因此建筑工地需要的工人较少。她说这项工作只需要四到五个人来监督 3D 打印过程。 Lok 说：“其中一个好处是，它需要人工进行大量繁重的工作和劳动”。混凝土是一种非常坚固的房屋建筑材料，可以抵御飓风、暴风雨和其他恶劣天气。

Roberto Montemayor is the project leader for PERI 3D Construction. He told Reuters the large 3D printer operates in much the same way as the small printers used in homes and offices. But there are two main differences. The first is that the home-building 3D printer can be expanded and changed to fit the needs of any size project, Montemayor said. The other difference is the material it uses. “We are printing here with concrete, which is a completely different material than plastic.”

Roberto Montemayor 是 PERI 3D Construction 的项目负责人。他告诉路透社，大型 3D 打印机的操作方式与家庭和办公室使用的小型打印机大致相同。但是有两个主要区别。 Montemayor 说，首先是住宅建筑 3D 打印机可以扩展和更改以适应任何规模项目的需求。另一个区别是它使用的材料。 “我们在这里用混凝土打印，这是一种与塑料完全不同的材料。”

The home is expected to be completed in the second half of 2023. The builders say they hope the modern method can be used in the future to build even larger housing structures. They said the technology can also build homes faster and for a lot less money. A growing number of American companies have begun offering homes built with 3D printing technology in recent years. But so far, the homes being offered are much smaller. The startup company Icon, based in Austin, Texas, made news in 2018 by completing the first permitted 3D printed home in the U.S. At the time, it said the home had been built in just one day.

该房屋预计将于 2023 年下半年完工。建筑商表示，他们希望未来可以使用现代方法建造更大的房屋结构。他们表示，这项技术还可以更快地建造房屋，而且花费更少。近年来，越来越多的美国公司开始提供采用 3D 打印技术建造的房屋。但到目前为止，提供的房屋要小得多。位于得克萨斯州奥斯汀的初创公司 Icon 在 2018 年完成了美国第一座获准的 3D 打印房屋，成为新闻。当时，该公司表示这座房屋仅用了一天就建成了。