Cruz, P. J. S. ; Knaack, Ulrich ; Figueiredo, B. ; De Witte, Dennis (2017):
Ceramic 3D printing: The future of brick architecture.
In: Proceedings of the IASS Annual Symposia, pp. 1-10,
Hamburg, International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), IASS 2017 Hamburg Symposium: Digital Technologies for Spatial Structures, Hamburg, Germany, 25-28 September 2017, [Conference or Workshop Item]

Abstract

The advent of Additive Manufacturing (AM) of ceramic, brought unprecedented possibilities for the building industry while exploring and incorporating components with specific design requirements. It definitively reshaped and expanded the boundaries of what's possible to achieve with masonry construction and opened new domains, with multiple angles of study and experimentation and with a large industrial potential. This paper presents the main challenges and outcomes of an ongoing research project aiming to explore the integration of digital additive manufacturing techniques in the architectural design and production processes of free-form stoneware bricks for building envelopes. The project uses a clay extruding printer, Lutum®, built by the company Vormvrij available at the Advanced Ceramics R& D Lab, at the Design Institute of Guimaraes and at Technische Universitat Darmstadt. The path, material flow and printing speed of the printing process are defined digitally. The movement speed, extrusion flow and the air pressure can be controlled manually to adapt the specific printing process to the characteristics of the clay during the printing process itself The widely accepted Pfefferkorn method has been extensively used to evaluate and control the plasticity of the stoneware used.

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