There are growing pains in the 3DCP industry, as a recent project was cancelled.
While we consistently see hopeful press releases describing new projects, all is not golden in the growing world of 3D printed construction projects.
According to a report from Noozhawk, a 3DCP project to print an affordable home in Santa Barbara, California was cancelled. The project was proposed by the Housing Trust of Santa Barbara County, and it involved producing a one-story home as a prototype. If proven, the idea might have been to print more affordable homes in the area.
However, the CEO of the Housing Trust Fund, Jon Peterson, announced a cancellation:
“Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to move forward. This really was an exciting project. We really hoped we could do that.”
What happened? Was the technology insufficient? Did it cost too much? Did something unexpected happen? It seems the answer revealed one big challenge in the 3DCP industry.
The Housing Trust Fund was to work with Apis Cor, a Florida-based company, but they “could not complete the job”, according to Peterson. He added:
“Ultimately, what happened with Apis Cor, they are a smaller startup. Their printer broke, and they found that they couldn’t repair it and they weren’t going to have a new printer until 2027.”
While that was technically correct, it seems that there was more to the story. Noozhawk spoke to Apis Cor CTO Nikita Ceniuntai, who explained:
“Negotiations stopped because of pricing. We are located in Florida, and the cost of delivering materials and equipment to California was very high. We simply could not perform this project without losing money, so we were unable to move forward. We never signed any contract with them and never received any payment from them.”
The Fund is now looking at contracting ICON, who does operate in their region, but it appears they are working through the more rigorous California construction standards. In addition, it sounds like there is lots of finger-pointing.
What can we learn from this messy situation?
- 3DCP companies are still new to many regions and there are significant learnings to be made
- 3DCP technology is large-sized and as a result cannot easily operate over large distances
- Regional 3DCP operations will have to be set up to handle the distance and regulatory issues
- 3DCP technology is still relatively new and there will be technical issues encountered
- Costs of projects will be unknown until all the details are figured out
Finally, there’s one more thing: while 3DCP technology is quite real and practical in some cases, don’t always believe the hype.
Via Noozhawk
