20 Apr Construction Waste Used To 3D Print Lego-Style Bricks
A new project funded by the EU Commission to develop 3D printed Lego-style bricks from construction waste materials has been launched at Brunel University London.
According to a press release, engineers behind the three-year DigiMat project are hoping to develop and demonstrate an eco-friendly cement mix, created from building waste, that can be easily printed into new, tight interlocking blocks for use in new buildings.
Dr Seyed Ghaffar, an associate professor in civil engineering at Brunel and project lead, said: “Demonstration projects built over the past few years have shown both the viability and potentials of 3D printing technologies, however, these projects have used conventional raw materials in their concrete feedstock”
He added that the use of recycled waste to replace virgin materials for 3D printing of a building block has not yet been done, but hopes to be able to demonstrate it soon,
Driven by its use of concrete, construction is among the world’s worst polluting industries, and produces up to 0.85 tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of cement.
The DigitMat project aims to reduce the industry’s reliance on cement by offering a clean and affordable solution that reuses materials recycled from other buildings.
The researchers plan to be able to demonstrate the technology by printing out a series of 50cm by 50cm recycled bricks that will connect to form an interlocking wall in a similar way to the way that Lego bricks work.
“Nearly half of all materials extracted from Earth annually are used in concrete, and extraction of construction virgin aggregates is the main part of the global non-metallic mineral consumption,” said Dr Ghaffar
He explained that the objective of the project is to decrease the CO2 footprint of printed products against traditional virgin concrete and cementitious mortars with the development of 3D printable mixtures that use up to 100 per cent recycled waste materials.
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