How it is done: 3D House

our Builder Engineer Andrei Rudenko, living in Minnesota, designed a 3D printer with a house with a house and built a castle in his site. The size of the engineering miracle: 3 x 5 m, the height is 3.5 m, the work continued all summer and ended in late August. "My Planet" contacted the architect to find out: how to build a 3D house?

When I started doing this printer, I didn’t believe me that he would work. It was too bold and brazen, so even familiar and friends who knew me well, looked at me with a smile as an idiot.

For two years I have taken the development of the printer. It was quite difficult: to build a house, you need a printer size with a house. At first I made a small instance: I ordered spare parts on the Internet from all over the world to make a regular printer – such as the store sell. I studied him, analyzed and began to increase in the amount, search for spare parts much more powerful and large and collect analog, but already in a very large amount.

The lock model and all the details are being worked out on the computer – usually in AutoCAD (they use all designers and architects). The model is done in AutoCAD, then passes through other programs, and it turns out a special machine language – the code that controls the printer.

All models that I do, first typing plastic. Here the castle model was first plastic: it is very convenient for understanding, as which connects, which towers and parts are needed. And you can show others, as if everything is already there.

The process of printing the lock, if we talk simply and primitively, something similar to the work of a regular printer – with the difference that the movement of the printer’s head is not only left to the right, but also up. That is, the printer itself rises higher and higher. Instead of ink, cement mortar is poured, very similar to the one that is used in conventional construction. The base is cement and sand, but there are supplements that make cement movable: so that it moves along the hoses to the cartridge. The mixture is extruded as ink from the fountain pen, using an extruder in the correct proportions and is fed to the cartridge head.

I had all the whole parts of the castle, and some details I printed separately, it was an experiment. Next castle or house I will print as one monolithic object. And the roof is generally an optional element, it is not necessary in all climatic zones. I agree with different countries – for example, with Qatar. Why do they need a roof? They have rain there twice a year, and snow never happens, so the roof is a special conversation for each region.

The printer can work itself, you only need to bring the material and fall asleep. I think it will take at least a year so that everything worked well. While you have to control everything and adjust. When I printed, loaded the cement mortar and went for lunch – peeking out the window and wondered: it works! Half an hour printer normally printed without me. It is pretty funny: to see how someone works for you on the street. My wife all the time told me: you are not afraid that now he will knock and comes to us?

I went about $ 1000 for me, but here, in America, material is more expensive than in Russia. Most of the money went on the sand. In Russia, it is possible to buy it "Kamaz", and here I took every bag separately for decent money. But the real 3D-house will be more expensive: it’s still the foundation, roof, glass, heating.

According to my calculations that I checked when the lock is seal, the one-storey house of 10 x 15 will be built during the week. It will be a ready-made house suitable for life. The printer will work around the clock because I do not like to stop it. When it works around the clock, he is simply delivering a cement mixture and everything, and if you stop it, additional problems arise: need to rinse, run.

My 3D lock is not very big, I did not have permission to build anything large-scale. My main goal was to check the technology and show how it all works. Before that I talked about the project, but no one believed that it was possible. Value proof was required. When the castle was ready, there were many people who want to settle there, at least for the summer.

I developed the technology so that the house is obtained warm, durable, durable. From the very beginning I came out of the fact that it is necessary to build a house that is better and cheaper than existing. To be honest, it all started in Russia, when I talked to the guys and realized that nothing was fundamentally changed in construction since I was not in Russia (in Minnesota I moved 15 years ago). Not only in Russia, worldwide technology did not move. And now I am fully ready to build a house. Printer in the last stage of the finishes, and now we solve the question: where to take the land and financing for this house. For several months, the house will be built: it should be good not only according to the characteristics, but the design should be interesting and unusual. I am not quite for myself, this is Model Home – model of the house, sample to follow other people.

I have another project that I will do after the house: I will create a museum dedicated to the beginning of 3D technologies. Museum itself want to build a 3D printer, and all exhibits will be associated with the development of 3D technologies. I have already started collecting the first printers that appeared a few years ago.

In general, 3D technologies exist for quite a long time, and the first 3D printers were made for 20 years ago, but they were extremely expensive and occupied a narrow niche. Somewhere Five years ago, the project Reprap – Community, which began to make cheaper printers. The project covered the whole world, and many lovers and enthusiasts have appeared to develop this topic. Now 3D technology has spread to all spheres of life. Someone is trying to print on 3D organs: heart, for example. Someone learned to print metal, and quite efficiently – not only rings and earrings, but even parts for turbines, rockets, engines. I chose a direction in construction, because all my life is somehow connected with the decoration of houses, construction, interiors. I never built ordinary homes, I prefer an exclusive and unusual.

The first who suggested doing 3D-houses was a professor from California – he expressed this idea ten years ago, but he failed to realize it, everything remained only in theory. The next stage – the Chinese took the idea, simplified it and did everything in Chinese. They went to the wrong direction: they are printed inside the workshop, and they have a big problem – they cannot transport them. Little houses are obtained, they must be immersed, unload, you need large trucks. I have a printer. Brought to the site, unloaded, and a house is built right on the construction site. Finished, transported and build on. In fact, it is very profitable: if you build, for example, a whole street.

I’m not going to patent technology. My task is to distribute this technology as widely as possible. Now there is a large number of immowers. Many people want a ready-made typewriter so that it is already working: from a variety of countries come proposals to start producing these printers and the construction of houses. Many people offer additional ideas as can be improved. And I am now forming an international large company, collected from a variety of countries, including from Russia, and quite soon everything will twist.