You've Got Mail: How India constructed its first ever 3D-printed post office in Bengaluru

Constructing a 1,000 square feet house would generally take eight to 12 months if the work continues uninterrupted.But that is still a long time in comparison to the latest building technology which is paving its way for the better future – 3D printing.Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday inaugurated India’s first post office constructed using 3D printing technology in Karnataka.“Bengaluru always presents a new picture of India. The new picture that you saw today in terms of this 3D-printed post office building, that’s the spirit of India today. That’s the spirit with which our country is progressing today,” Minister Vaishnaw said, according to ANI.The Minister also visited the location to see the unique structure which was readied in a span of 44 days, beginning 21 March.Also read: Indian Army’s 3D printed defence bunkers on Western Front: What are they all aboutAll about Cambridge Layout POThe inauguration of the 1,100 square feet post office was held in Bengaluru’s Cambridge Layout near Ulsoor Bazaar. The new structure has been named “Cambridge Layout PO,” and will house the Halasuru Bazaar Post Office.By 3 May, the building's framework was complete, but it took two months to install the drainage and water systems. Structure, MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing), and plumbing are all included in the project scope.The project was taken up by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) with technological support from IIT Madras under the guidance of Professor Manu Santhanam, Building Technology and Construction Management Division, Department of Civil Engineering, according to Indian Express.The overall construction cost was about Rs. 26 lakh, which is approximately 30 per cent to 40 per cent less expensive than a structure constructed conventionally.For extra expenses like pavers, drainage connections, and water connections, the Civil Wing of the Postal Department paid almost Rs 40 lakh.Using an automatic 3D concrete printer, the structure was manufactured on-site, reported The New Indian Express. According to a 3D model illustration, this involves layer-by-layer concrete deposition and necessitates a delicate balance between the concrete mix's capacity to flow and its ability to solidify quickly.“This is perhaps the first public building constructed by this process,” the report added.The other 3D-printed structure entails printing the components off-site in a manufacturing facility, which are subsequently assembled on-site.The postal department wants to expand the use of the 3D-printed post office to 400 additional places that have not yet been served by postal services if the pilot project is successful.Also read: 16 deities, 3D-printed lotus, distinctive Arabian look: Inside Dubai's new Hindu temple set for grand opening todayAbout 3D printingActually, the technology is very different from what the name "printer" conjures up in most people's minds.Robotics are used to deposit building materials in layers to create walls, floors and roofs in 3D printing in construction, also known as 3DCP, explained Hindustan Times. The machine may create some necessary supports and reinforcements in advance and incorporate them into a house as it is being built.In other words, it is a much faster method of building a structure than tedious bricklaying and rebar strengthening.A 1,000 square foot 3D printed house can be built in as little as five to seven days rather than eight to 12 months.For a developing nation like India, 3D printing holds enormous promise for the future of cheap housing, according to industry experts.There will be a line within this separating speciality printers from more generic ones. Unlike commercial 3D printers sold on retail websites like Amazon.in, where you can buy one for 15,000 and use it to make an object as big as a football, 3D printers for construction are frequently elaborately tailored equipment.How it worksA 3D-printed home is built from the ground up, starting with the blueprint, the foundation of any construction plan. Instead of having construction workers translate it to the ground, a larger 3D printer uses a computer design to build a physical structure at the scale decided upon by the engineers.Dimensional information, information on whether a particular wall is load-bearing, and information on the necessary thickness are all details available to the printer.Several construction components are layered throughout the printing process.A dry-mix material feeding system, continuous mixer, pumping unit, motion assembly, operating software, and other components make up a 3D concrete printer. The nozzle is a vital element in construction printers.A 3D printer uses plans to construct the walls, pillars, and roof; any extra components, such as windows, doors, electrical, and plumbing systems, are added afterwards.“Concrete is one of the most used materials for 3D printed houses. It usually contains the dry components cement, sand, gravel, and aggregates,” Cobod, Denmark-based 3D construction equipment maker, told the outlet.Through a nozzle, the printer sprays the mixture it has just picked up. The firm said in an explainer that those materials are subsequently combined with water to create a reaction that transforms the dry powder into a thick, liquid mass.They are not simple, though."A printing mix requires to possess certain properties, such as faster preliminary setting; ability to be pumped out (pumpability), flowing nature (flowability), and ease of building one layer upon another without deformation (buildability)," said Shekhar, adding that these are properties are not found in the mortar used in conventional construction, according to HT.Also read: World's first '3D-printed temple' to come up in Telangana; check details herePotential to transform the construction industryL&T was one of the first significant construction businesses in India to adopt 3-D printing technology. According to India.com, they even "printed" a tiny one-story structure using the locally produced 3-D printable concrete mix in November 2019 as a learning exercise utilising a large-size concrete 3-D printer from Cobod.L&T claims that by accelerating the building process and improving overall build quality, 3D concrete printing has the potential to revolutionise current construction practices."Using a robotic printer, 3D printing technology deposits concrete layer-by-layer in accordance with the 3D model drawing input. The process requires a delicate balance of concrete properties, including flowability, quick hardening for load-bearing capacity, green concrete status for inter-layer bonding, and sufficient strength to ensure successful printing," the statement said.“If you build it, they will come. And if you 3D print it, they will come faster, cheaper and more sustainably,” Avi Reichental, CEO, chairman and co-founder of 3D printing company Nexa3D, had said in 2018.Roughly five years later, in India and around the world, more people are beginning to understand what the prophecy meant.Grand View Research's most recent statistics indicate that the global market for 3D-printed homes was estimated to be worth $13.84 billion in 2021 and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 20.8 per cent through 2030. The study says there were 2.2 million 3D printers shipped globally in 2021, and by 2030, that figure might reach 21.5 million.India's construction industry, which had a 2016 value of $126 billion, is predicted to increase by up to 7 times by the year 2028, per government data.Additionally, researchers at the University of Nantes conducted a study that found concrete buildings manufactured using 3D printing technology might last up to 100 years.“In a nutshell, while we are using a novel methodology, learning and findings achieved over the last century in the field of construction should not be overlooked and should be taken as a baseline for further improvement,” Shekhar told HT.Also read: Relativity Space to concentrate on building larger 3D printed rockets for commercial launchesOther similar buildingsOver a year back, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati constructed a 3D-printed sentry post for the Indian Army as part of indigenous research and development research, reported ANI.The nation's first 3D-printed home, built by the tech start-up Tvasta in Chennai (on the campus of IIT-Madras), was inaugurated by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in April 2021. From printing to final building, a 600-square-foot, one-story unit took three weeks to assemble, costing approximately Rs 5.5 lakh, or about one-fifth of the average price of a two-bedroom apartment in most urban areas of India.The walls of a 3D-printed house created in 2014 by the Chinese business Winsun were built using concrete sprayed on layers by four huge 3D printers, according to Business Insider. The business produced 10 full-sized, one-story homes in a single day. In addition to Shanghai, they are developing a 50,000 square metre complex with seven towers that they claim to be the largest 3D printed complex in the world. The goal is for it to be finished by the end of 2023.Despite the fact that numerous homes claim to be the first 3D houses, it is thought that a family in Nantes, France, became the first in the world to live in a 3D-printed home in 2018, according to HT. It is a four-bedroom house that is roughly 1,022 square feet in size and was printed in 54 hours using cement and insulator polyurethane as the main building materials.The Dubai Future Academy offices, a 2,600 square foot building that is 20 feet (ft) high, 120 feet long and 40 feet wide, hold the Guinness World Records distinction for the first commercially produced 3D-printed building.With inputs from agencies