Conception of a cement particle-bed 3D printer

Developping a 3D printer from scratch...

The aim of the coneption is simple :

The 3D printer allows to activate a powder made from a mix-design of bonding mineral mixed with granulates (sand with or without gravel, depending on the desired resolution) by injecting or spraying a solution composed of water and additives

Modelisation for the particle bed 3D printer

Valve

Conception of the printer

The powder tank is fixed to a CNC gantry robot. The robotic arm hangs the air pressured solution valce and is linked to a water tank under pressure.

A lot of pieces were very specific and we used Fusion 360 Autocad and SolidWorks to model the pieces needed. Then, we printed them using a plastic extrusion 3D printer.

An Arduino system is fixed on the support and connects the CNC with the stepper motors.

Illustration of the 3D printer developped and cycle of the process

The first tries have ben made on July 2021. You can e brief look of the 3D printer on the video

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/c4908e_c7f032273992427f9996378e899d41a0/360p/mp4/file.mp4

First tries and printed blocks

It 's time to print construction materials .

Some difficulties appear with the first trials, it seems that the powder bed need to be more resistant to the impact of the droplet...

Powder spread on particule bed (left) - Water droplet deposition on cement powder (right)

The powder mix-design and the rheological properties of the fluid should be improved to reach higher accuracy.

Last printing, from left and upper

This last piece illustrates the printer process accuracy. On the left picture we can imagine the water spreading through the porous medium. That is the reason the base of the sample is larger than the top. Also, the image on the right raises the challenges needed to be solve to mainstream this technique.

If you have research ideas of you want to try to print pieces with the 3D printer , do not hesitate to contact us .