One of the geometrical restrictions associated with printed paste materials such as concrete, is that material must be self-supporting during printing. In this research paper a new methodology for 3D Printing Concrete onto a temporary freeform surface is presented. This is achieved by setting up a workflow for combining a Flexible Mould developed at TU Delft with a 4-degrees-of-freedom gantry printer (4 DOF) provided at TU Eindhoven. A number of hypothetical cases are studied, namely fully-printing geometries or combining 3D printing with casting concrete. The final outcome is a 5 m² partially-printed and partially-cast shell structure, combined with a CNC-milled mould simulating a Flexible Mould.

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It is no secret that there have been some great advances in the realm of concrete additive manufacturing. However, one of the major drawbacks of this fabrication technique is that the elements must be self-supporting during printing. While most other additive manufacturing materials can overcome this by using a secondary printed support structure, alternative strategies have to be developed for materials such as concrete. This 4TU project explores the possibilities of combining concrete additive manufacturing with a temporary support surface. By printing on a free-form surface, more intricate geometries can be realized. A number of potential applications have been outlined, however the principle focus is combining concrete additive manufacturing and casting. The end result is a partially-printed pavilion using a completely digital design-to-fabrication workflow.@en

In this research paper a new methodology for 3D Printing concrete onto a temporary freeform surface is presented. One of the geometrical restrictions associated with printed paste materials such as concrete is that material must be self-supporting during printing. The paper explores the possibilities of printing on top of a temporary freeform surface in order to overcome this restriction. This is achieved by combining a flexible-mould developed at TU Delft with a 3-axis gantry printer provided at TU Eindhoven. A number of hypothetical cases are studied, namely fully-printing geometries or combining 3D printing with casting concrete. The final outcome is a 5m2 partially-printed and partially-cast shell structure, realized through a completely digital workflow using Grasshopper and Rhinoceros @en