A spitball-throwing robot could help transform the construction industry. It's the latest technology being used to create sustainable building materials.
The impact printing process — developed by a team led by Lauren Vasey at ETH Zurich — does not require cement or pauses for curing time, as New Atlas reported. This is important because it slices into the pollution associated with construction, and 3D-printing concrete can be slow.
"The building sector needs to dramatically decrease our CO2 emissions from new construction, and we need to move towards more circular supply chains," Vasey said in a video about the robot.
Impact printing is basically a supercharged version of 3D printing. In ETH Zurich's development, a machine shoots a clay composite material straight down at 10 meters per second. This robot could be used at construction sites and also features an arm that is equipped with a smoothing device to offer a more polished look than the "bunch of blobs" aesthetic, as New Atlas put it.
The substance is made of clay, silt, and an undisclosed common waste product from Eberhard AG, an industry partner of the university. Other mixes could allow for different structures and loads, Vasey said.
"We developed impact printing as a new additive manufacturing method that would basically decrease dependency on scarce skilled labor and also increase the speed of construction so that we can be cost-competitive to modern building materials," she added.
The machine can build walls and columns of one or two stories, and the team is working on technology so the robot can add reinforcements as it deposits the clay blobs with such force that they bond on impact, per New Atlas.
"It's like watching a high-tech sand castle come to life," Kurt "The CyberGuy" Knutsson said. "The best part here? No cement needed."
Indeed. Cement is a major component of concrete, which accounts for much of the industry's pollution. Though cement makes up just 10-15% of concrete's mass, it is responsible for as much as 90% of its pollution, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Cement is also the root cause of 7% of global emissions, the second-leading polluter of the industry sector behind only iron and steel (8%). The notorious oil and gas sector tallies 4% of worldwide carbon dioxide pollution.
Hence, there is a need to invent greener building materials. Other alternatives in the works include Rebetong, a 100% recycled concrete, and even glass bricks.
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