3D printing of street furniture at TU Eindhoven

Figure: Robert Mehl

In the Vertico system, the print head is mounted on a robot arm, which can be moved on a rail. This makes it possible to produce objects with dimensions of well over 10 meters.

Figure: Robert Mehl

At TU/e, Prof. Cristina Nan also conducts research on the 3D printing of clay. In the foreground, two identically shaped items printed in clay (left) and plastic (center). The clay objects show noticeably rounder edges.

Figure: Robert Mehl

Elements of this park bench engage with each other. A corresponding stool element also fits into the bulge in the foreground, creating the seating portion of this piece of street furniture.

Figure: Robert Mehl

Minor manual interventions are permanently required. Pictured is a technician holding a shovel under the printing nozzle so that the mortar does not drip onto the object after completion. This photo shows the object referred to in the introductory part of this article, which Volker Ruitinga rated as reject due to its irregular layers.

Figure: Robert Mehl

The 3D printing setup also includes a mixer (front left) and a silo for the dry mortar (pictured behind)

Figure: Robert Mehl

At the Technical University of Eindhoven, Prof. Cristina Nan’s research and teaching activities relate to the 3D printing of concrete, among other subjects. She also deals with the social, societal and sustainability aspects of this relatively new technology. The full article was also published in the Jahrbuch Beton Bauteile 2023 (in German only) available from the Profil bookshop of Bauverlag.

Volker Ruitinga is the owner of Vertico, a company based in the Dutch city of Eindhoven that specializes in the large-scale printing of 3D objects. It is a major service provider in this field to the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), which usually only performs small-scale 3D printing in its laboratories.

Ruitinga’s quality-driven approach combined with his expertise in what “levers to pull” is exactly what Prof. Cristina Nan is keenly interested in as part of her research into 3D printing: What is the human impact on 3D printing? The whole world pretends that all you have to do is have...