Singapore Housing Development Board locally sets up the largest 3D printer of South East Asia and hopes to apply this technology to combined house in the future.

3D Printing Technology

The use of this new technology can not only speed up construction work, reduce costs, reduce labor intensity, but also increase more feasibility of design than traditional construction methods to improve construction efficiency. At the same time, HDB may be the first to apply this technology to some pre-order HDB projects in Tengah and Bidadari, and experimentally use 3D printing technology in some public spaces and landscape tables and chairs.

The 3.8-meter-high and 3.5-meter-wide 3D printer is located in the Construction and Development Department of the HDB. The printer has successfully printed and completed a 11 square meter room in 6 days, which is much faster than the current building technology.

He Linsen, chief of the architectural design and prefabrication system of the Ministry of Construction and Research, said that 3D printing technology can bring more possibilities to the future construction industry. Architects and designers can more flexibly and freely play design ideas.  Moreover, the procedures of 3D printing technology are highly automated, can greatly reduce the reliance on manpower. In addition, the Singapore Housing Development Board is also developing unmanned technology to replace traditional labor to regularly check the quality of HDB flats.

Chief He Linsen also added that the current 3D printing technology is still relatively new, and HDB will continue to work with industry experts to explore its potential. The entire 3D printing room production process took about 6 days , including the manual reinforcement insert structure, and the installation of windows and doors.  It takes about two months by labor, which does not include the time that it takes to design the mold.

At present, it takes 174 working days to build a room of 90 square meter space, and 205 working days in 2010. Comparing with 2010, the productivity of HDB flats in Singapore has increased 17.8% by 2018. With this technology, it is expected to achieve a 25% up in productivity by 2020.

The Singapore government not only wants to apply 3D printing technology to construction, but also expects to use it in weapons manufacturing in the future to replace the old-fashioned equipment of the Singapore Defence Force. Furthermore, 3D printing technology will also be used in the medical and health field, and we can use it to print out bones as artificial prostheses, etc.