Creating affordable housing in remote regions: This is possible thanks to a large-format 3D printer from Italian company WASP that builds house walls with clay. To ensure that the printer can perform this work reliably and without constant servicing despite high levels of dust and dirt, the engineers rely on lubricant-free sliding films made of high-performance plastic from igus in its mechanics.
Potter wasps can build their own homes from natural materials that they collect in their surroundings. The Italian company WASP took this mechanism as a model for developing the Crane WASP modular 3D printer, which builds house walls from clay on construction sites. With its help, for example, the TECLA house was built in Massa Lombarda, Italy, the world's first 3D-printed, dome-shaped building made entirely from a mixture of earth and water. WASP's goal is to offer a technological solution that enables the creation of affordable, environmentally friendly, and rapid housing in remote regions. Crane WASP can be used to construct houses from locally sourced natural materials, agricultural waste, and standardized building materials.
Too much dirt and dust for traditional metal storage
The 3D printer consists of a main printer unit that can be assembled in various configurations. The printing area of a single unit has a diameter of 8.2 meters and a height of 3.2 meters. The Crane WASP has a vertical lifting mast and a height-adjustable boom that can be rotated 360 degrees. A clay extruder moves horizontally along the boom, building up the walls of the building layer by layer. This process took 200 hours for the Tecla House. A project of this magnitude places considerable strain on the components of the 3D printer. The bearings, over which the print head moves for hours on the Z-boom and which are constantly exposed to dust and dirt, are subject to particularly high . The WASP team recognized the risk that these particles could destroy the lubricating film in metal bearings, cause mechanical abrasion, and increase friction and wear. The worst consequence would then be bearing failure. For this reason, WASP sought a dirt-resistant alternative to conventional metal bearings.
3D printers more economical thanks to lubricant-free sliding films from igus
The team opted for drylin R JUM-01-50 sliding films made of the high-performance plastic iglidur J. The carriage with the print head glides over these films on the aluminum struts of the boom. The special feature: No lubricating grease is required because igus integrates solid lubricants into the high-performance plastic, which are released during operation and enable dry running for years. Thanks to the sliding films from igus, the mechanics of the 3D printer are not only more dirt-resistant and fail-safe. Lubrication work is also no longer necessary. This eliminates time-consuming maintenance work and reduces operating costs in daily use. Another advantage of the sliding films made of high-performance plastic is that they are up to 80 percent lighter than comparable metal bearings. According to WASP, their lower mass improves the precision and response speed of the print head and thus the print quality. Designers do not have to compromise on robustness. The sliding films are designed to absorb both lateral and axial loads when the print head moves. They are also resistant to moisture and temperature fluctuations. These properties ensure that the 3D printer works reliably even under difficult conditions.