PERI Group to 3D Print Walls of Small Home Each Day at Bautec Construction Exhibit

Any lingering questions related to the future of 3D printing in construction should be answered this year for visitors at the international Bautec construction exhibit in Berlin. Germany’s PERI Group will not only be in attendance showing off the COBOD BOD2 3D construction printer, but they will be doing something very new and unusual for a construction exhibit: 3D printing the walls of a small house in real time every day of the show!

Running from February 18-21, Bautec brings together many different areas of construction all at once in their trade fair—from planning and operating, to building and housing, and more. The COBOD 5x5x5 BOD2 3D construction printer—one we have covered previously regarding two-story construction prints, a European building fabricated in three days and more—will be set up at the PERI booth where visitors can watch live 3D printing of a home every day from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.

During the international Bautec construction exhibition in Berlin with over 30.000 visitors from more than 40 countries COBOD and PERI is not only showcasing COBOD’s BOD2 3D construction printer, but is actually live printing a small house every day of the show, February 18-21. Visitors are invited to come and see for themselves.

“It is so easy to video film a 3D construction printer in action and then edit out anything unplanned occurring during the printing to produce a nice-looking video in the end,” said Henrik Lund-Nielsen, CEO of COBOD.

“There are so many examples out there with heavily edited and manipulated content, far from what is happening with the same printer in real life printing. When you print live, it is not possible to hide anything. With this live printing we are documenting that our technology has the quality, robustness and stability to perform hour after hour, day after day. We plan to print the walls of a small house each day just during the opening hours of the exhibition, and everybody is invited to follow the process.”

PERI acquired a significant stake in COBOD in 2018, and serves as the distributor for the BOD2, which commenced in shipping in January 2019. Seven of the 3D printers have been sold so far, establishing the BOD2 as ‘the most sold construction printer in the world,’ according to the press release COBOD sent to 3DPrint.com.

Featuring a modular build (with the capability to be extended to 2.5 meters in width, length, and height), the BOD2 is meant to run at a maximum speed of 100 cm/second; however, the COBOD team has been forthcoming about challenges in material and pumping mechanisms that have limited speed to 40 cm/second—a speed they explain has still ‘not been beaten by any other provider so far.’

Additional improvements have been made to the BOD2 since last year, beginning with a refined extrusion system that prints smoother walls. COBOD has also streamlined the set-up time of the printer, reducing it by 50 percent—meaning that when traveling to another site, the hardware can be set up in just four hours.

“We use this occasion to also show some of the improvements, that we have made since we launched the BOD2 last year. Especially I am glad to show, that our finishing quality of the 3D printed walls now is so good, that only minimal plastering is needed afterward to arrive at the desired quality,” said Lund-Nielsen.

“All in all we are very happy to be able to showcase our technology live here at Bautec and by the many visitors we have here spending half an hour or more on taking videos and photos, I do believe the visitors are also very happy with what they see.”

“We would of course have liked to bring an even bigger printer but printing here during the exhibition has meant some limitations. Consequently, we are only printing a very small one-bedroom house of approximately 4 meters by 4 meters. Also, when it comes to the speed, we have had to restrict ourselves,” explains Tilmann Auch, COBOD product development engineer.

“During Bautec we are only printing with 25 cm/second. This is due to the EU robotics directive, that requires a safety fence around the printer, if we were to print faster. We surely did not want to put a fence up, as it would too much block the visitors’ possibility to see the printer in action, which is the very reason why we are here. “

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