My inclination was to write an additional commentary on the topic I covered last month: uncertainty. The fact is that all of us are probably punch drunk watching the business news broadcasts and reading about the disruption across Washington, D.C. in the business and popular consumer press.
Enough already. There is nothing we can do about the current air of uncertainty, but one truism seems to dominate daily life within our industry: we continue to batch concrete, produce all manner of concrete products, and extract coarse and fine aggregates we consume in our daily businesses. So as we remain distracted with uncertainty, it is worth noting some of the advancements occurring in our industry that portend the future.
One of those advancements is 3D printing. If you have been to any of the large industry trade shows in the past couple of years, you may have seen the outdoor presentations from the handful of companies that are building the printers that create everything from small buildings to complete houses. And the fact is that 3D printing will revolutionize how our customers construct concrete structures within the next decade.
Yes, the current technology is in a nascent stage; it reminds me of the original cellphone, the famous bag phones of the 1970s. For those of you under 50 years of age who have no recollection, these were gym bags carrying the equivalent of a small car battery that powered an analog transceiver with a curled pigtail handset attached to it—just like our home phones of that era. Believe me, back then none of us using this crude new technology could ever have dreamed of the smartphone of the current day, and all the apps they support that have brought untold efficiency to our business and personal lives.
Therein lies the promise of 3D printing in the concrete industry. A recent project that could revolutionize small building construction took place in Arida, Japan where in the six hours between the departure of the night’s last train and the arrival of the morning’s first one, workers in the rural community built an entirely new train station. It will replace a significantly bigger wooden structure that has served commuters in the remote town for over 75 years.
The new station’s components were 3D printed elsewhere and assembled on site last month, in what the railway’s operators say is a world first. It may look more like a shelter than a station, but building one the traditional way would have taken more than two months and cost twice as much.
As Japan’s population ages and its work force shrinks, the maintenance of railway infrastructure, including outdated station buildings, is a growing issue for system operators. Rural stations with dwindling numbers of users have posed a particular challenge.
Serendix, the construction firm that worked with West Japan Railway on the project, said printing the parts and reinforcing them with concrete took seven days. The printing was done at a factory in Kumamoto Prefecture on the southwestern island of Kyushu. The parts left the factory and were transported about 500 miles northeast by road to Hatsushima Station. As trucks carrying the 3D-printed parts started pulling into the station location, several dozen residents gathered to watch the first-of-its-kind initiative get underway.
Then after the last train pulled away at 11:57 p.m., workers got busy building the new station, and in less than six hours, the preprinted parts were assembled. They were delivered on separate trucks, and a large crane was used to lift each component down to where workers were piecing them together, just a few feet from the old station. The new station, which measures just over 100 square feet, was completed before the first train arrived at 5:45 a.m.
Much larger structures than the Hatsushima Station can be built the same way, as there is no limit to the number of preprinted parts that can be mated to each other. Look for the 3D printed structures of the future to become a bigger consumer of our concrete production in the years to come.Pierre G. Villere serves as president and senior managing partner of Allen-Villere Partners, an investment banking firm with a national practice in the construction materials industry that specializes in mergers & acquisitions. He has a career spanning almost five decades, and volunteers his time to educating the industry as a regular columnist in publications and through presentations at numerous industry events. Contact Pierre via email at pvillere@allenvillere.com. Follow him on Twitter – @allenvillere.