Concrete printer

The computerized production robot for additive manufacturing in civil engineering ("Concrete printer" in short), will be used by the Chair of Computing in Civil Engineering to develop digital models and intelligent sensor technologies for additive manufacturing. The importance of additive manufacturing in civil engineering is continuously growing. However, the full potential cannot be exploited due to a lack of methods and processes required to improve the productivity and quality of additively manufactured building components. The concrete printer may contribute to improving the productivity and quality of additive manufacturing in the construction industry and may help answer unsolved scientific and practical questions

  1. on developing digital models (e.g. based on building information models) to resolve current information breaks in the digital thread of additive manufacturing in civil engineering and
  2. on integrating new sensing technologies, such as autonomous miniature sensors, into printed concrete components and into industrial robots for additive manufacturing to optimize material and process parameters.

The concrete printer is a joint initiative of different chairs and institutes of Bauhaus University Weimar and Technical University Ilmenau with unique core competencies in computing in civil engineering, material sciences, structural engineering, structural mechanics, and production technologies. The concrete printer is financed with EUR 523,000 by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and by the Free State of Thuringia. The initiative is coordinated by the Chair of Construction Materials at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Project-related publications

  • Peralta, P., Heine, S., Ludwig, H.-M., & Smarsly, K., 2020. Printing information modeling (PIM) for additive manufacturing of concrete structures. Advances in Engineering Software (submitted).
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  • Smarsly, K., Peralta, P., Luckey, D., Heine, S., & Ludwig, H.-M., 2020. BIM-based concrete printing. In: Proceedings of the International ICCCBE and CIB W78 Joint Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering 2020. Sao Paolo, Brazil, 06/02/2020 (submitted).
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  • Peralta, P., Heine, S., Ludwig, H.-M., & Smarsly, K., 2020. A BIM-based approach towards additive manufacturing of concrete structures. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE). Berlin, Germany, 07/01/2020 (submitted).
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Contact
Daniel Luckey, M.Sc.
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Informatik im Bauwesen
Coudraystraße 13 b, Raum 002
99423 Weimar
Email: daniel.luckey[at]uni-weimar.de 
Phone: +49 3643 58 4217