World’s first on-site 3D printed apartment building on 3 floors begun with COBOD printer

• The on-site 3D printing of a 380 m2 three floor apartment building in Germany (Wallenhausen) has begun

• PERI, COBOD’s German partner, is using COBOD’s BOD2 3D construction printer for the printing of the walls

• The finished commercial apartment building will be owned by Michael Rupp Bauunternehmung GmbH and consist of 5 different apartments, which will be rented out. This is not a research nor demo project but is made for profit.

The three floors on-site printed commercial apartment building is the first of its kind in Germany and globally, and it is another milestone towards 3D construction printing becoming more mainstream. PERI, the German distributor of COBOD’s 3D construction printers, revealed the project in Germany (Wallenhausen) at a press conference on November 17, 2020.

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The three floors building in Germany follows only 2 month after PERI revealed the first 3D printed building in Germany, a two floor building  and a few months after COBOD’s Belgian customer, Kamp C, revealed Europe’s first 3D printed two floors building in Belgium. The video from the 3D printing of the Belgian building has gone viral and has been seen more than 400.000 times as a testament to the growing popularity of the technology.

Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder and General Manager of COBOD commented: “We are incredibly pleased, that we are beginning to see the fruits of the many 3D construction printers we have sold. The actual building projects have been delayed by the Corona virus, but now they start to be revealed. This new German project is really a great milestone as the commercial nature of the building proves the competitiveness of the 3D construction printing technology for three floors buildings and apartment buildings. This, again, opens entirely new markets for our printers”.

PERI globally is one of the leading suppliers of formwork equipment for manual casting of concrete. PERI’s involvement in automated 3D construction printing is noticeable and a sign that the conventional construction sector has realized that automation and digitalization of the construction industry is the future, including using 3D construction printers.

Thomas Imbacher, Innovation and Marketing Director at PERI GmbH, explained: “We are very confident, that 3D construction printing will become increasingly important in certain market segments over the coming years and has considerable potential. By printing the first apartment building on-site, we are demonstrating that this new technology can also be used to print large scale dwellings units. In terms of 3D construction printing, we are opening up additional areas of application on an entirely new level”.

Sebastian Rupp, future managing director at the family owned Michael Rupp Bauunternehmung added: “We believe that this new technology has enormous potential for the future, and we want to help shape that future. Despite the traditional nature of our craft, we are also innovative and do not shy away from new challenges – quite the opposite in fact”.

PERI is printing the apartment building with the help of COBOD’s BOD2 printer. The BOD2 has a modular build and can be extended in any direction with modules of 2,5 meters. For the new building PERI is using a BOD2 of 12.5m (W) * 20m (L) * 7,5m (H).  The BOD2 printer has a maximum speed of 100 cm/sec, equivalent to printing or casting 10 tons of concrete per hour with only 2 operators of the printer required. The BOD2 has also been used to make large concrete structures like the world’s first 3D printed windmill tower of 10 meters, that COBOD did under a long term cooperation with GE Renweable Energy, which was also revealed just prior to this summer.

Henrik Lund-Nielsen concluded: “The BOD2 is a very flexible printer. For this print PERI has chosen to use a long printer, whereas we used a much shorter but taller printer for printing of the 10m tower for GE. This was the whole idea behind the modular design of the BDO2 printer - it is always possible to find a size that meets the customers need”