A Novel Methodology of Powder-Based Cementitious Materials in 3D Inkjet Printing for Construction Applications

Recently, additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing are becoming increasingly popular and widely used in a variety of applications. Inkjet 3D printing (i.e. powder-based printing) is one of the most reliable frequently-implemented techniques in 3D printers. This paper discusses a novel methodology to replace the currently used typical powders in 3D printing to make it possible to use the printed specimens in construction applications. The printed cubic (20Í20Í20mm) and prism (60Í5Í5mm) specimens with different saturation levels are printed to investigate the relative strength of the 3D printed specimens. Curing in different saturation environments can increase their strength and durability. In general, the experimental results show that the highest compressive strength was recorded (14.68MPa) for the samples that are first cured in water then dried in an oven for one hour at 40ºC, comparing to the samples that are cured without drying at 40ºC (4.81MPa). Accordingly, it has been discovered that the post-processing technique has an effective and significant impact on the strength of the printed specimens. Furthermore, samples which are casted using manual mixing have been also been compared in detail