CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - One can say the future of building homes took place in the backyard of an engineering lab in Champaign.
Usually, the army would use concrete to build shelters, culverts and barriers when they're deployed for humanitarian services. With 3-D printing in the picture, it could cut back on labor. Dr. Michael Case, who's the project director behind it all, said form work is 50 percent behind using concrete.Â
"We would have to ship less plywood over there, we'd have to send fewer people wherever they're going," Dr. Case said.Â
Case described the innovation as "thinking smarter, not harder." Corps engineers worked on the project since 2015. Experts said using 3-D printing enables people to be able to have custom shaped buildings that are harder to produce conventionally.Â
Crews have printed a shelter before in 21 hours for more than six weeks. The new goal is to print another in 24 hours straight. Crews said no one has printed something that large in 24 continuous hours.Â
Dr. Case said this project should change the way buildings are made in the next decade.Â
