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Mar 29, 2016 | By Benedict

Dutch startup Pixelstone has developed a 3D printer prototype which can print intricately designed façades made of small cubic ceramic bricks called “Pixelstones”. The startup is aiming to bring a new form of craftsmanship to the interconnected worlds of architecture and construction.

There is a lot of talk about how additive manufacturing might, in the not-too-distant future, be used to construct buildings. The 3D Print Canal House project in Amsterdam, which uses one of the biggest 3D printers in the world, is promising to build the first ever fully 3D printed canal house, but its construction timeframe of several years does not suggest that 3D printing will soon replace traditional construction methods on a large scale.

Accordingly, nobody will be living in a PLA-roofed, Shapeways-produced house any time soon, but what if there was a way for construction firms to combine the solidity of brickwork with the precision of additive manufacturing, harnessing the best elements of both techniques in a single process? Two compatriots of the 3D Print Canal House project, Hans Lankhaar and Bram van den Haspel of Pixelstone, believe this union to be possible, and have built a 3D printer which aims to bridge the gap between additive manufacturing and brickwork. “Consider our Pixelstones as the ink from the printer,” said van den Haspel. “With this project, we want to bring back craftsmanship on façades, but using a 3D printer.”

The Pixelstone 3D printer uses tiny bricks, 3D pixels, or “Pixelstones”, instead of molten plastic or metal. Just like many 3D printers, the machine extrudes the material—in this case, tiny bricks—to the print head, where it is dispersed into the appropriate position. According to the startup, Pixelstones can be used to produce rich and complicated façades. Bricks cannot pass one another in the tube, meaning they enter and exit in the same order. This allows the bricks to be arranged in precise color patterns.

Perhaps more important than their pleasing aesthetic effect is the cost and energy efficiency of the ceramic Pixelstones, which are 50% cheaper to produce than regular brick slips and much better for the environment, requiring 90% less energy per kilogram to produce. "Pixelstones are cube-like brick particles of 1cm,” said van den Haspel. “Because they are so small, they are quickly fired, and that saves a lot of energy.”

Façades made with the Pixelstone 3D printer resemble mosaics, but are strong and can be built on a large scale. “We pump these stones through a tube to a printhead, enabling us to print entire panels,” explained van den Haspel. The 3D printer prototype can print at 0.5m² per hour, but the final 6 x 3m 3D printer should permit maximum printing speeds of 5m² per hour. At their current rate of progress, the pair could have the Pixelstone 3D printer ready for production in less than two years.

Pixelstone is just the latest ambitious project from Lankhaar and van den Haspel, who together comprise 3D printing group Lab3d, a product and materials design specialist.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

 

 

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