In Georgetown, Texas, ICON’s Vulcan printer is nearing completion of the world’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood, featuring 100 homes in the Wolf Ranch community.
ICON’s Vulcan Printer, which measures 13.7 meters and weighs 4.75 tons, is in the final stages of constructing the last home. It operates by layering material similarly to a desktop 3D printer, but on a much larger scale, as reported by Interesting Engineering on August 10.
3D-printed homes at Wolf Ranch. (Photo: ICON).
According to Conner Jenkins, senior project manager at ICON, 3D printing significantly enhances efficiency in the commercial construction market by replacing multiple construction teams with a single workforce and a robot to build the wall systems. Once the concrete powder, water, sand, and various additives are mixed and pumped into the printer, a nozzle extrudes the mixture like toothpaste, layer by layer, following a predetermined path to create the walls.
Jenkins also shared that a single-story home with 3 to 4 bedrooms takes about three weeks to complete, with the foundation and metal roof installed using traditional methods. The concrete walls are engineered to resist water, mold, termites, and extreme weather conditions. Lawrence Nourzad, a 32-year-old business development director, and his girlfriend Angela Hontas purchased a home in Wolf Ranch earlier this summer. They described the home as fortress-like and capable of withstanding most tornadoes.
The walls of the homes also provide excellent insulation against the hot Texas weather, keeping the interior cool even when the air conditioning system is not running at full capacity. However, the 3D-printed walls appear to affect wireless internet connectivity. “Clearly, these are thick, solid walls. That’s very valuable for homeowners and provides excellent insulation during the Texas summer, but the signal doesn’t pass through the walls very well,” Nourzad shared.
ICON has addressed this issue; most homeowners in Wolf Ranch use mesh Wi-Fi systems that transmit signals from multiple devices placed throughout the home, rather than relying on a traditional router.
ICON first 3D-printed a house in Austin in 2018 and is now aiming to extend its technology to the Moon. As part of the Artemis lunar exploration program, NASA has contracted ICON to develop landing pad construction systems, shelters, and various other structures on the Moon’s surface. In addition to ICON, another startup in Houston, Hive3D, is working on a project in Round Top, Texas, where they are constructing five homes ranging from 37 to 84 square meters for short-term rentals at a popular tourist destination.
