Florida-based construction 3D printer manufacturer AMTG has reported that three of its G2 gantry systems were used together to produce the printed wall system for the Mella shopping center. The commercial project, developed by an AMTG customer, relied on the three construction 3D printers working in a coordinated workflow, with long wall sections, openings and architectural transitions formed directly during printing. According to AMTG, spreading the work across several machines let the project team distribute production over the building footprint rather than depending on a single printer.
AMTG has not disclosed how the three printers were synchronized, leaving open whether they ran simultaneously under centralized control or followed coordinated production schedules.
Coordinating three gantry printers
AMTG describes the G2 as a high-reach gantry construction 3D printer built for large building projects. Its modular Cartesian structure can be configured to match a building's geometry and the demands of the site, which the company says makes it adaptable to different footprints and structural layouts. For the Mella project, the three systems produced long wall runs, openings and architectural transitions in the course of printing.
The company's role was limited to supplying the printing systems, operator training and equipment-operation certification. Structural design, materials and construction remained the responsibility of the customer's qualified professionals, AMTG said.
A family of construction printers
Beyond the G2, AMTG offers three construction 3D printer families. The R-Series covers road-mobile and tracked robotic systems intended for rapid deployment, the G-Series covers gantry printers for on-site construction, and the F-Series focuses on factory-controlled production of prefabricated components.
3D printing moves into conventional construction
Construction companies are increasingly folding 3D printing into commercial building work. In the United States, Alquist announced an expansion of its construction 3D printing operations through a partnership involving Walmart, construction firm FMGI and equipment supplier Hugg & Hall. That initiative spans more than a dozen commercial projects and includes equipment deployment, operator training and technical support, a model in which contractors add 3D printing to their existing operations.
In Germany, construction group Matthäi set up a dedicated 3D printing division after completing a two-storey office building. Using a COBOD BOD2 printer, the company produced the building's walls in roughly 105 hours, while foundations, floors and roofing were finished with conventional methods.
In France, the ViliaSprint² development used a COBOD BOD2 printer to build a three-storey residential block with 12 apartments. Its walls and load-bearing structure were printed in 34 days against an initial estimate of 50 days, and the project partners are planning a larger development that would run two printers simultaneously.
In Australia, construction technology company Luyten 3D introduced the ASCEND A27, a tower crane-mounted concrete 3D printer with a working radius of up to 45 meters. Unlike conventional gantry systems, it is designed to cover larger construction footprints from a single installation point.
Taken together, the projects point to two routes for scaling construction 3D printing: adding more machines to a site, as at Mella, or extending the reach of individual units.