RP and Building Construction Industry

From: Volker Ruhl
To: RP-ML
Date: Tuesday, September 19, 1995
Subject: RP and Building Construction Industry
     since one year I have been working on my dissertation called "Automated 
Fabrication Processes for Complex Shaped Concrete Formwork and Concrete 
Building Elements". Working for several years on the most complex formed 
concrete structures and building elements I had been constantly 
confronted with the problem of constructing freeform elements on the 
construction site. All the forms during this time had been built manually 
by skilled craftsmen, carpenters, modelbuilders or even shipbuilders. 
Limitations in formworktechnology led me to investigate in automated 
fabrication techniques and their possible application for the concrete 
building industry.
     One part of the thesis is  "concrete structures without formwork". In 
here I was suggesting the application of MIT"s 3D Printing process with 
Portland Cement and water selectively sprayed over the cement powder.  I 
was pleased about reading  Marshall Burns article in the Rapid 
Prototyping Report yesterday that Joseph Pegna had realized this method. 
     Does anybody have the report which was presented by Pegna in Dayton or 
Texas this summer? 
Is there anybody out there who is working on the second method which I 
want to propose -  a selective deposition of concrete paste similar to 
the Stratasys process? 
Who is interested in developing a Ferrocement Deposition Modeler? 
Are there more out there who are working, or who are interested in 
application of RP in the building construction industry? 

Volker Ruhl
Dipl. Ing., M. Arch., Architect
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