3D-Printed Houses in WolfRanch Faster, Cheaper, and More Efficient

TapTechNews August 10th news, according to a report by Reuters on the 8th, after nearly two years of efforts, a residential area named WolfRanch in Texas, USA is about to be completed. Different from ordinary residential areas, nearly 100 houses in WolfRanch are all built by giant 3D printers.

This summer, the robot printer of ICON, a 3D building printing technology developer, is completing the last few of the 100 3D-printed houses in Wolf Ranch, Georgetown, Texas. ICON started printing house walls in November 2022, and it is known as the world's largest 3D-printed community.

Compared with traditional construction, 3D-printed houses are faster, cost less, and require fewer workers, and can minimize the waste of building materials.

Conner Jenkins, senior project manager of ICON, said that 3D-printed houses have improved a lot of efficiency for the trade market. Previously, there might have been five different construction teams to build a wall system, and now we only need one construction team and one robot.

After concrete powder, water, sand and other additives are mixed and pumped into the printer, the nozzle will extrude the concrete mixture like a toothpaste brush and build up layer by layer along a preset path, thus forming a corduroy-effect wall. It is introduced that the design of the concrete wall can be waterproof, mold-proof, termite-proof and resistant to extreme weather.

The 3D-printed residences in the WolfRanch residential area are called the Genesis Series by the developer, and the price range of a single house is about $450,000-$600,000 (TapTechNews note: currently about 3.23 million - 4.306 million RMB). The developer said that more than a quarter of the 100 residences have been sold.