CyBe Construction Demonstrates Speed, 3D Printing Five Concrete Benches in One Day

3D printed concrete construction is something that seemed laughable one moment, then the next moment was happening everywhere. Multiple companies sprang up with their own concrete 3D printers and printing technologies, and suddenly printing houses and bridges was a serious idea that soon became reality. One of the earliest companies to arrive on the 3D printed construction scene was CyBe Construction, which announced a few years ago that it had developed its own 3D printable mortar and construction 3D printers, attracting the full attention of the industry.

Since then, CyBe Construction has gone on to accomplish some major 3D printing projects, including the R&Drone Laboratory in Dubai. Among those have been some smaller but just as impressive projects as well, including a recent undertaking that involved several 3D printed benches for Dutch company Dura Vermeer. Dura Vermeer initially asked for one bench to be 3D printed in the city of Haarlem; CyBe did the printing on site using its proprietary technology. After that first 3D print, Dura Vermeer was so pleased that it asked for five more benches.

The second batch of benches was 3D printed in CyBe’s R&Do Laboratory rather than on-site. CyBe Construction decided to set a challenge for itself on this particular project – to complete all five benches in less than one working day. It sounds like a dubious challenge, but as a matter of fact it was quite doable – in the end, all five benches were completed in less than four hours, including installing and moving the 3D printer. The print time of each bench was only 35 minutes. At that rate, CyBe says, up to 30 could be produced per day, or up to 10 in one working day.

“We believe this particular process of serial printing is the way prefab factories will work in the future,” the company states.

The design and engineering of each bench were done by CyBe Construction in addition to the 3D printing, and the company improved upon the design of the original, which had a curved seat that collected rainwater. The new benches featured a design that wouldn’t retain water on the seat, allowing people to stay dry after the rain.

“The various applications that can be done with the same 3D concrete printer are another advantage,” CyBe Construction says. “Printing these benches has been done with the same Cybe RC3dp printer as we used for the R&Drone Laboratory and manholes. Our printer serves various markets.”

The RC3dp printer was the first mobile concrete 3D printer to be able to move on caterpillar tracks, making on-site 3D printing easy. It also prints at high speed, hence the fast rate at which the company was able to churn out the concrete benches. Dura Vermeer has been thrilled with CyBe Construction’s work, and this recent project shows how far 3D printed concrete construction has come in a very short time – it’s gone from a “yeah, right” concept to a legitimate means of mass production.

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