Supportless 3D Printing of shells Adaptation of Ancient Vaulting techniques to Digital Fabrication
Impression 3D de coque sans cintre : Adaptation des techniques anciennes via la fabrication digitale
Résumé
With the improvement of the 3D printing industry, the interest in additive manufacturing of large-scale structures (AMLS) is rapidly increasing. Recent attempts of seeking solutions for 3D printing of large-scale buildings demonstrate that the transition from conventional construction systems to automated robotic manufacturing workflows is evident. The usage of formwork plays a crucial role in accelerating the progress of AMLS domination in construction industries. Other advantages of supportless printing have been seen in NASA's research for in-situ 3D printing of habitats on Mars. Investigations of large-scale 3d printing of concrete structures are mostly related to robotics, rheology and material mechanics. There is little research done on the application of architecture and form-finding in this field. This paper discusses solutions for supportless 3D printing of large-scale compression shells with the focus on In-situ concrete 3D printing. The aid of special form finding and robotic trajectory generation is also reverse engineered ancient brick-laying techniques recognized in international vaulting precedents lacking formwork. Finally, a strategy for the generation of robotic printing tool-path to span any convex inscribed quadrilateral based boundary with no temporary support is yielded and tested with the simulation of 1:20 (15×15 cm) scale construction practice by a "3Doodler" pro pen as extrusion head (child) and ABB IRB_120 six-axis arm as a parent.