COBOD 3D prints live at World of Concrete 2022 in Las Vegas
COBOD has spearheaded the development of construction 3D printing and has sold more than 35 3D construction printers to date (since 2019) across six continents. These have been used for multiple “world firsts”, including the first 1-, 2- and 3-story 3D printed buildings in Europe, the first 3D printed house and school in Africa, and the first wind turbine tower base made in cooperation with GE Renewable Energy. In the US, COBOD’s printers have been used to make houses in 3 different US states so far.
To demonstrate the market readiness of the technology and its widescale applicability in the US, COBOD brought its printing system at one of the largest US construction events. COBOD’s printing system is capable of printing with mortars as well as being the only printer in the world to print real concrete. At the World of Concrete, the COBOD BOD2 printer used a mortar mix from QUIKRETE and demonstrated continuous 3D printing of a wall structure over 3 days in a row increasing the height daily, and during printing, the crowd had the opportunity to ask questions and get explanations to various aspects of the printing process.
Commenting on the success of the live 3D printing, Philip Lund-Nielsen, Co-founder & Head of Americas at COBOD, said: “Our goal with 3D printing in front of a live audience at World of Concrete was to demonstrate the advantages of our technology in the US as our main market, at the same time demonstrating that our technology is reliable and ready to be used in the US. We wanted to show that 3D construction printing is not just a lab idea, but a viable and competitive alternative to traditional construction methods. The massive number of inquiries during and after the show tells me that we succeeded with our goals.”
The live printing attracted a crowd of more than 1,000+ people and was very popular. World of Concrete even labeled the live printing as a “must-see” exhibition, further underlining the increased interest and attraction of the 3D printing technology.
Martin Cardoine, Manager of Precise Contracting, Tennessee, voiced his excitement of the live 3D printing demos: “It was thrilling to see COBOD’s BOD2 printer live in action and being able to have conversations face to face with the technology provider, a materials expert, and an existing customer from the US. We are looking very much forward to getting started with our own 3D construction printing projects in a few months, pioneering COBOD’s technology in our state. As a further sign of the increasing popularity of COBOD’s technology, the educational event which COBOD also hosted during the World of Concrete had more than 150+ attendees and the lecture room had to be upgraded twice to accommodate everybody.
On the success of the educational events, Alma Bangsgaard, Architect and Project Manager, COBOD added:
“From COBOD’s side, we were happy to share with the attendees all our accumulated knowledge from working with our 32+ customers across the globe. We especially enjoyed the discussions on how new developers and builders go from planning to printing, which attendees could then experience live outside shortly after. We also noticed that some of our so-called competitors were signing up for our course in large numbers, emphasizing our leading position in this industry.”
