SBIR Phase I: Additive Manufacturing in Construction

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于适用于全尺寸建筑施工的增材制造（3D打印）工艺的可用性。建筑业是美国经济中的一个关键环节。建筑施工几乎影响到每一个经济部门，特别是制造业、交通运输、能源、消费品和电器以及真实的房地产。简单地说，一座建筑可能是最重要的经济刺激因素。然而，建筑实践很少看到技术革命，而技术革命几乎改变了所有其他行业。因此，建筑业产生了大量的材料和资金浪费，其生产力在过去几十年中稳步下降。增材制造是创造定制产品的最有效和最具成本效益的方法，其中建筑物是迄今为止最有价值和最广泛购买的。如今，定制化需求越来越大？的消费者。建筑领域的增材制造可以降低成本和材料浪费，同时提供无与伦比的设计自由度，并通过将许多孤立的工业活动整合到一个高度灵活和高效的制造过程中来推动创新，直接为行业专业人士和客户提供个性化服务。该项目的智力价值源于增材制造在改变设计和制造方面的巨大潜力。从广义上讲，所提出的构建方法旨在使普通消费者能够获得数字建筑设计的复杂性，效率和自由度。第一阶段的研究将用于扩展和开发一种新的大规模增材制造工艺，并评估物理产品作为建筑部件的性能。所提出的方法也可能影响其他类型的大规模制造，包括航空航天和汽车。我们的技术植根于对自然界中创造形式的过程的观察。自然界中的结构长期以来一直吸引着科学家和工程师，因为它们具有显着的效率和复杂的形式。3D打印现在使我们能够制造出类似效率和复杂性的产品，这些产品反映了我们对自然的观察。我们相信，如果自然有机体的天才可以应用于我们创造住所、提供交通、设计基础设施或建造城市的方式，那么由此产生的创新将深刻地、非常真实地塑造我们社会的发展方式，并改变我们与自然世界的关系。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the availability of an additive manufacturing (3D printing) process suitable for full-scale building construction. The construction industry represents a critical nexus in the American economy. Building construction impacts nearly every economic sector, particularly manufacturing, transportation, energy, consumer products and appliances, and real estate. Simply, a building is perhaps the most essential economic stimulus there is. Yet, the practice of building has seen little of the technological revolution that has transformed virtually every other industry. As a result, the construction industry produces significant material and financial waste, and its productivity has steadily declined over the past several decades. Additive manufacturing is the most efficient and cost-effective approach to creating custom products, of which buildings are by far the most valuable and most widely purchased. Customization is increasingly driving demand by today?s consumers. Additive manufacturing in construction could reduce costs and material waste while providing unparalleled design freedom and driving innovation through the consolidation of many isolated industrial activities into one highly flexible and efficient manufacturing process, which directly serves industry professionals and clients at an individual level.The intellectual merit of this project stems from the vast potential of Additive Manufacturing to transform design and making. In a broad sense, the proposed method of construction aims to make the complexity, efficiency, and freedom of digital architectural design accessible to the average consumer. Phase I research will serve to scale and develop a new large-scale additive manufacturing process, and to evaluate the performance of the physical products in their functions as building components. The proposed method may potentially impact other types of large-scale manufacturing as well, including aerospace and automotive. Our technology is rooted in observations of the processes in which forms are created in the natural world. Structures in nature have long fascinated scientists and engineers, due to their remarkable efficiency and complex forms. 3D printing now allows us to manufacture products of similar efficiency and complexity which reflect our observations of nature. We believe that if the genius of natural organisms can be applied to the way we create shelter, provide transportation, design infrastructure, or construct cities, the resulting innovations could profoundly, and very literally, shape the way our societies develop, and transform our relationship with the natural world.