Overview of 3D construction printing and future perspectives: a review of technology, companies and research progression

Abstract

3D printing and additive manufacturing have been established in several industrial fields with an unprecedented increase in the building sector during the last decade. Several companies’ applications of 3D construction printing and numerous scientific works demonstrate the potential of this technology. Recently, researchers are investigating both the specific 3D printing performances and the global trend of additive manufacturing production. However, the existing applications and literature reviews focused on specific issues. The present work proposes an in-depth review on the current progress of 3D construction printing by emphasizing for the first time the similarities and differences between advancements in research and in industrial applications. This comparison allows reaching a comprehensive overview of how academic and technical worlds are working differently, including a broad-spectrum vision from an environmental, structural and functional point of view. As a result, the investigation highlights the existing gap and future interest of academic world and companies.

KEYWORDS:

• Literature review
• 3D construction printing
• additive manufacturing
• construction market
• building construction technologies

Authors' contribution

Stelladriana Volpe: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, validation, visualization, formal analysis, data curation, writing – original draft preparation. Valentino Sangiorgio: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, validation, visualization, formal analysis, data curation, writing - original draft preparation. Francesco Fiorito: Conceptualization, review and editing, supervision. Humberto Varum: Conceptualization, review and editing, supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This review has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the review.

Additional information

Funding

The work was partially funded by the European Union, European Social Fund, PON Research and Innovation 2014–2020.