[Image above] Minnesota-based company Total Kustom has built a 3-D printer that can custom-print concrete into whole houses—even castles. Credit: INSIDER; YouTube

This year, we’ve seen additive manufacturing enter into new and exciting arenas—in addition to additively manufacturing harder and stronger ceramics, 3-D printing has created custom implantable bioceramics, used concrete to save the planet, cushioned athletic landings, and so much more.

But it’s not just the materials and applications of 3-D printing that are expanding—its projects are growing in scale, too.

Just a few months ago, Oak Ridge National Lab used its large-scale printer to fabricate the world’s largest 3-D printed object. And now, 3-D printing can even build the house of your dreams.

Scientist–engineer–tinkerer Andrey Rudenko and his Minnesota-based company Total Kustom have built a 3-D printer that can custom-print concrete into whole houses—even castles.

The portable carbon–kevlar composite printer builds structures on-site to enable “affordable, faster, zero-energy, and smarter housing,” according to the website.

Rudenko and his team tinkered with the printer’s nozzles, drivers, cement formulation, and various other parameters to be able to print large-scale structures in concrete with zero waste.

Total Kustom says the printer achieves tight tolerances of just 1–2 mm and can build a two-story house with up to 200 m2 per floor. And it’s fast—the printer can lay down the concrete for a 100 m2 house that’s 3 m tall in just 48 hours.

While the castle was the team’s first large-scale printed demonstration, Total Kustom also recently used one of its custom 3-D printers to build a hotel in the Philippines—complete with a 3-D-printed jacuzzi. Check out more about the hotel from this story on 3ders.org.

Watch the short video below to see this impressive printer in concrete action.

YouTube video

Credit: INSIDER; YouTube

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April Gocha

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