Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.
On February 28th 2022, researchers at the Technical University of Berlin and Brunel University London spoke of their work experimenting with using recycled soda-lime glass as a component of concrete used for 3D printing. (Concrete is made from a mixture of cement, water and aggregates like sand. Soda lime glass is the most common type of glass and typically found in windows and bottles.) Crushed glass was washed, dried, milled and sieved, resulting in particles smaller than a square millimetre in size. This was used in concrete to 3D print wall elements and prefabricated building blocks, which the team claimed could be fitted together to make a whole building.
The team contended that using glass solved the problem of waste while also contributing to the development of concrete with superior properties than that of concrete made with natural sand. For example, they argued that the thermal conductivity of soda-lime glass is more than 3 times lower than that of quartz aggregate, meaning that their concrete would have better insulation properties and therefore the potential to substantially reduce the necessary cost of cooling/heating during summer/winter. (Quartz aggregate is extensively used in conventional concrete.)
Furthermore, the researchers made other changes to their concrete mixture to make it more environmentally sustainable, including replacing some of the Portland cement with limestone powder. (Portland cement is used to bind other ingredients together to form a mixture that will harden, although its production causes significant greenhouse gas emissions.) They argued that using limestone instead of Portland cement wouldn’t reduce the quality of the 3D printing mixture, in addition to limestone being less hazardous and its production having less environmental impact.
Finally, the team added lightweight fillers made from tiny, hollow thermoplastic spheres to reduce the concrete’s density, finding that this reduced the concrete’s thermal conductivity by up to 40% compared to other 3D printing concrete, furthering improving its insulation properties and reducing the amount of raw material required. The team’s research was published in the Journal of Building Engineering.
3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.
Disclaimer: Featured image of “Concrete mixing plant, Birmingham, Alabama, view 1” is a work of an employee of the United States Farm Security Administration or Office of War Information domestic photographic units, taken as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.
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