Additive manufacturing with Concrete : the Path to Practical Implementation

Research and innovation in digital fabrication with concrete are ad-vancing rapidly and high quality, sustainable solutions are being developed. Re-cent pilot projects have confirmed the potential of 3D-Printing to improve produc-tivity, sustainability and working conditions in concrete construction. However, there are still technological and economical obstacles to overcome and essential developments to be pursued to enable widespread implementation. This paper dis-cusses the path towards the practical implementation of 3D printing in the con-crete sector. The study presented focuses on the technological development, eco-nomic and normative aspects of 3D printing with the aim of developing a roadmap for practical implementation. The obstacles to implementation are reviewed, and activities to overcome these barriers and support implementation are highlighted. Finaly, the standardisation aspects are discussed and prenormative steps, which are necessary for the practical implementation, are proposed. The specific contri-bution of this paper is the research on and determination of the Technology Read-iness Level (TRL) of different technologies for the in-situ and off-situ applica-tions. Furthermore, the authors studied and suggested the implementation options for different technologies.