Additive manufacturing for the built environment

Abstract

To improve the potential of the European construction industry in the field of additive manufacturing technology (AM) and its application for construction components, the authors of this paper promoted the consortium AMforBE, committed with gathering scientific experts in AM and specialised producers of building systems/components. It also involves researchers in testing and certification processes, building product manufacturing optimisation methodology, AM machine specialists, robot engineering etc., and institutions specialised in technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship. The consortium therefore merges the know-how and the complementary skills of actors in academics, multi-national companies, small and medium sized enterprises, and national research agencies. This paper targets the potentials of AM for the built environment and the related industry – to identify potentials of the technology in real-world implementation for design and engineering process and construction. Drivers for these potentials are energy reduction in production, integrated products, individualized applications and the potential for small and middle size companies being able to participate in high quality production with limited investments in hardware.