Analysis of the impact of steel 3D printing in construction

Metal Additive Manufacturing (or 3D printing) technologies are bringing substantial changes to the entire industrial environment, enabling rapid and cheap production of complex compo-nents which would be hardly fabricated with conventional technologies. Recent developments in the field of large-scale metal 3D printing increased the potential use for the construction sector, with applications in some pioneering case studies. The present work is intended to report a comprehensive analysis on the potential impact of metal 3D printing in construction through a survey analysis, an environmental ana-lysis and a cost analysis. The survey is carried through students and professionals in the AEC sector (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) to assess the potential interest and current issues in applying advanced manufacturing technologies in practice. The results show a positive interest from both the current generation of professionals and the current students (hence the future generation of profes-sionals) in the AEC sector in the new manufacturing technology for construction. The interest has seen a growing trend during the survey, evidencing the need of further specialized courses on the possible applications of metal 3D printing in construction. Moreover, the combination of metal 3D printing technologies with topology optimization to realize more efficient structural elements has produced more interest in the young generations than the professionals. The results revealed a positive impact of WAAM towards greener and optimized steel structures, and the interest of the future generations on such advanced technologies could potentially increase their application on new constructions.