Contour Crafting

Contour Crafting is a computer-based construction methods for the construction of buildings.

Principle

The house is designed on the computer and the data is then forwarded to the "Printers". The " printer " is a fully automatic gantry robot, which is larger than the building; over concrete container of fast-curing special concrete and normal concrete is supplied.

First, the gantry robot, layer by layer pours a frame using the quick-setting special concrete. Its computer-controlled spray nozzle creates thin traces of the concrete on the ground, which are brought by two side-mounted trowels in their final form. Then the frame is filled with normal concrete. Furthermore finished steel scaffolding or the like can be incorporated with. Thus, a building is created exactly according to computer drawing.

This principle of rapid prototyping has been developed by U.S. researchers Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.