Piston press extrusion as a low-cost screening tool for cementitious formulations in 3D concrete printing

The commercialization of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) technology is rapidly advancing. However, building-scale field demonstrations and trials reveal that there are shortcomings that hamper its implementation in the construction industry. One critical challenge is the development of cementitious formulations compatible with the wide range of printer platforms and their use in relevant environments. Academic and start-up research and development (R&D) teams’ work is limited by the excessive upfront costs of large-scale 3DCP printers, as well as high costs of consumables, and replacement parts when experimental results do not go as expected. This work introduces how cementitious formulations can be tested using an inexpensive piston press to quickly evaluate the printability of experimental cementitious formulations. The results demonstrate the use of a piston press to screen materials for extrusion and layer-by-layer builds of cementitious formulations. This low-cost approach streamlines the validation of new formulations compatible with 3DCP. The approach can facilitate the transition of 3DCP materials from bench-scale R&D to practical civil engineering applications.