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Contour Crafting House Printer Nears Test
Contour Crafting (CC) is basically a "house printer;" when supplied with the proper instructions, it will "print out" a complete shell of a house. Technovelgy readers should be familiar with the work of Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis from a previous article (see Contour Crafting: 3D House Printer for additional details on how the technique actually works).
(Robotic Contour Crafting Video )
According to a recent article in the TimesOnLine, a UK news site, Dr. Khoshnevis' Contour Crafting techniques will receive their first real world test in Los Angeles sometime in April of this year. The first prototype will be a watertight shell of a two-story house built in 24 hours - without a single construction worker on the job site.
Citing a 200-1 speed increase over traditional house-building methods, Dr. Khoshnevis particularly recommends his methods for use after natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina:
Contour Crafting is the only layered fabrication technology which is suitable for large scale fabrication. CC is also capable of using a variety of materials with large aggregates and additives such as reinforcement fibre. Due to its speed and its ability to use in-situ materials, Contour Crafting has the potential for immediate application in low income housing and emergency shelter construction
Update 01-Feb-2014The earliest sf reference (not to mention the earliest reference period) that I know of for 3D printing is from Things Pass By, a 1945 story by Murray Leinster:
It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells. But plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens as it comes. This thing will start at one end of a ship or a house and build it complete to the other end, following drawings only.
(Read more about Leinster's Plastic Constructor)
(End Update.)
Read more about Contour Crafting (the site also has some demonstration videos); via TimesOnLine.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/15/2007)
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