April 12, 2013

Launched by New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) in the fall of 2012, the NYC Waterfront Construction Competition is designed to provide innovative and cost-saving solutions for completing marine construction projects and maintaining waterfront infrastructure in New York City.

Leading experts across the globe have submitted their ideas seeking to help to find new ways to repair New York City's waterfront. On April 10, 2013, three winners were officially announced at the Change the Course Symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan.

Three winners, D-Shape, Andrew Rella and John Sheridan of The Sheridan Corporation, will be awarded a total of $90,000 for their selected ideas.

D-Shape's 'Digital Concrete' has won $50,000 as First Place Winner.

D-Shape's 'Digital Concrete' resolves a number of issues regarding the restoration of piers, piles and seawalls that populate New York's waterfront.

Traditional methods including encasement, PVC warping, sacrificial anodes, extensions etc requires specially skilled labor for on-site installation of rebar and forms or pouring concrete. By 3D scanning, then 3D printing concrete, D-Shape could fabricate off-site and yet be able to control the quality. The advantage of prefabrication includes better quality control (thus longer life), lower costs, lower labor mobilization and quicker delivery and installations.

(Above: Each encasement can be customized for their Specific Pile.)

(above: 3D Printed Encasements for Timber Piles)

(3D printed extensions)

 

How does it work?

Step 1: Pier and piles are cleaned then 3D scanned by site crew

Step 2: Data is processed and pile encasement, extensions or blocks designs are drafted off-site

D-Shape 3D Printer prints pieces at NYC Facility. Rebar is placed and grouted before shipment to site. D-Shape can print upwards of 50 encasements or extensions per batch in 5 days.

Installation Process:

4. Pieces are placed

  • Collar affixed to hold them
  • High-end grout pumped in
  • Steel Collar is attached to Hold piece in place


The materials used for printed piles are special formula based on Magnesium Cement and can reach 2x to 4x listed strengths when casted.

Take an example of Pier 40 at Manhattan, NYC, it has 3500 piles with average length of 6.5 ft. Nearly 10% of piles rated Major and 30% rated Severe, remaining 60% were rated Moderate or Minor.

(Images credit: jfBRandon)

D-Shape proposed that light weight non-structural pile jackets can be used for the repair of all moderate and minor piles. The non-structural pile jackets fits mitigation standards and has 51% less volume compared to existing types of pile encasements. The total cost saving is around 30% comparing to the traditional methods.

And for repairing all severe and major piles, thicker and heavier encasement will be printed and Carbon-fiber rebar will be installed during printing process. The total cost saving is around 20%.

D-Shape estimates the potential cost savings to NYC by utilizing its technology across all 565 miles of shoreline to be $2.9 billion.

"Reclaiming and transforming New York City's hundreds of miles of waterfront have long been a key piece of the Bloomberg Administration's overall economic development strategy. Now, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, establishing a long-term vision for our waterfront has taken on even greater importance. The winning ideas selected as a result of this competition will allow us to address the needs of our City's aging infrastructure in both an innovative and cost-effective manner, ensuring the sustainability of one of our City's greatest assets." - NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky

Congratulations to D-Shape and other winners.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printers

 

 

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