Assessing the effectivity of additive manufacturing techniques for the production of building components: Innovation for housing construction in Saudi Arabia

This paper examines the suitability of existing robotic technologies and large-scale 3D printing techniques for the fabrication of three-dimensional printed building components to be applied in the Saudi housing construction industry. The paper assesses a series of cases based on the applications for 3D-printing cement-based materials in construction. In particular, we investigate five different additive manufacturing techniques and evaluate their performance in terms of their flexibility/mechanism, control/navigation, calibration/operation system, fabrication suitability (in-situ or off-site), size of printed components, printing speed. The findings include in a matrix chart, where the advantages and disadvantages of each technique become evident. The paper further evaluates the suitability of each technique in relation to the particular climatical and sociopolitical context of Saudi Arabia, applicable to other construction industries with similar condition