TRAVERSE CITY — This week, our station has been featuring stories from the Northwest Michigan Housing Summit, including one about the state of homelessness in the Traverse City area, and another about how city leaders want to encourage smaller buildings on existing lots.
9 and 10 News spoke with researchers at Northwestern Michigan College who think they have a solution for both of these problems.
NMC has introduced a new program to help teach students how to operate 3-D concrete printers. That makes them the first college in the country to offer classes like this.
“We wanted to keep innovation at the forefront of our students, and we thought this was a great avenue to go down. ”
The machine they are working with was designed in Detroit and uses quick-drying concrete to lay out templates for new walls.
Instructors say the students have been learning a lot.
“They’re very excited about the new technology. The students are very involved with the hands-on process as well as the academic process.”
Operating the machine requires workers to constantly adjust levels of moisture and monitor flow rates.
If a layer had too much water, it could ruin the whole section.
“It’s an opportunity for the students as they’re monitoring the build that they can see, any potential mistakes or any potential errors as they’re printing along...Are we getting it too dry? Is it too hot? Is it drying too quickly? Because that could cause cracking, ”
Structures like this require fewer workers on the job site, which could be more important as the current crop of construction workers ages out of the industry.
“There’s not enough people to work in this industry. Just the fact of the matter is, we don’t have the population to replace that. So let’s build smarter.”
It can also build things faster than existing methods; prefabricated walls for a two-bedroom cottage could be printed in 72 hours.
Researchers hope that this could help address the immediate housing needs our region faces right now.
“I’d like to see the industry in Traverse City. The builders are adopting this technology and having these students be equipped to run a printer; I think it speaks volumes. You know, it’s difficult to take on a new technology when you don’t know how to use it.”
