Over the past year, we have heard of several companies and individuals who have begun 3D printing actual houses. In China, several small houses have already been printed, and in the Netherlands there is a 3D printed canal house project underway. Even in the US, there are plans by one man to 3D print his home in Minnesota.
We have yet to hear of any way to purchase a printer capable of printing a house though. That is until now. Slovenian company, BetAbram has informed 3DPrint.com that they plan on releasing their first 3D house printer, the BetAbram P3, this July or August. According to the company the printer will be priced at approximately 12,000€.
They don’t plan on stopping there though. In fact, they currently have plans on releasing three different 3D printers this year. The BetAbram P3 will be the smallest of them all. Following its July/August release, the company plans on releasing the larger P2 and P1 printers, in September of this year. While prices have not been set in stone yet, they have informed us that the P2 will sell for approximately 20,000€, while the P1 will be approximately 32,000€.
“We already constructed all three types [of printers], but we are still developing software for [the] BetAbram P2 and P1 printers,” the company tells 3DPrint.com. “These printers are designed to build houses. We’ve printed a lot of small objects, miniature houses, sculptures, but we haven’t built a real house yet because the P2 and P1 printer software is still under development. It will be ready in September 2014 along with P2 and P1 printers.”
These 3D printers are capable of constructing very tall buildings, because once the machine reaches 2 meters in height, it can rather easily be moved up a level using a special rail system. This means that the build volume is not dependent on the Z axis. As for the X and Y axes, the P3 can print buildings measuring 4 meters X 3 meters (12 square meters), the P2 is capable of 12 meters x 6 meters (72 square meters), and the largest, P1 is capable of 16 meters x 9 meters (144 square meters).
These printers could easily change the way that homes are built, not only in Slovenia, but all around the world. Imagine if such machines were set up in 3rd world countries to print out small homes on a large scale. This could greatly increase the quality of life of those currently living in less than ideal conditions.
Check out the introductory video of one of these BetAbram 3D printers below. What do you think about these new 3D house printers? Are they worth the money? Discuss in the BetAbram forum thread on 3DPB.com.
