Funded by: DFG
Contact person: Niklas Meier
Summary of the overall project:
In contrast to the metal and plastics processing industries, manufacturing in the construction industry is comparatively less automated. Therefore, since the late 1990s, there have been more and more efforts to achieve a higher degree of automation in the construction industry, in order to be able to manufacture complex components at low cost. In addition to automated formwork construction and the automated production of reinforcement structures, research is carried out to establish additive manufacturing processes of concrete components in the construction industry. This offers the possibility to produce i. e. structurally optimised concrete components and thus, reduce the amount of CO2 intensive cement used. One additive manufacturing process for concrete components is powder bed 3D printing using selective cement activation (SCA).
In this process, the component is built up layer by layer with two steps per layer:
Within the framework of the DFG-funded TRR277, the aim of the A01 - "Particle-Bed 3D Printing by Selective Cement Activation" project is to better understand and improve this process. The main challenges are achieving high strength and good shape retention. Therefore, the production of customised powders for this process is part of the research at iPAT. The desired goals are to be achieved by adjusting the particle size distribution and surface properties of the particles, as well as the addition of additives. Research is also carried out to improve the process for compacting the powder bed.
Figure : SEM images of the surface of an uncoated (left) and a coated (right) sand particle.
Together with the project partners at iBMB (TU Braunschweig), components are printed in the 3D printer with the produced powders and their properties are investigated.