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Automated Construction by

Contour Crafting
Behrokh Khoshnevis
University of Southern California

Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Fabrication Processes

Formative (pressing, forging, bending,..)

Subtractive (milling, turning, chiseling, sawing, stamping..)
Additive
Casting (requiring mold)
Traditional Layered Fabrication (only in manual construction)
Modern Layered Fabrication (SFF or RP) Technologies

Viterbi School of Engineering

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Commercialized RP Technologies

Viterbi School of Engineering

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SIS Selective Inhibition Sintering

Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

MPM Moldless Powder Metallurgy

Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Limitations of current SFF methods

Slow speed
Not scalable
Limited choice of materials
Impossible to embed other objects

Viterbi School of Engineering

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What is Contour Crafting?

Material feed barrel

Side trowel control

mechanism

CC is a layered fabrication
method which combines ancient
surface forming concepts with
Nozzle
modern robotics technology
Top trowel
Side trowel

Viterbi School of Engineering

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A CC machine for thermoplastics

Viterbi School of Engineering

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Nozzle Assemblies

Viterbi School of Engineering

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Plastic Parts

Viterbi School of Engineering

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CC Machine for Ceramics

Viterbi School of Engineering

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Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Process & Machine Design Research

Comparison of the flow pattern with the simulation result and the actual process on the near optimal conditions: side
views with a square orifice (top pictures), and side views with an elliptical orifice (bottom pictures)
Viterbi School of Engineering

USC

Movable Side Trowel

Cylinder
Connector
Bevel gear

Nozzle

Side trowel

mechanism of
movable side
trowel

Viterbi School of Engineering

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Building Various Surface Slopes

Viterbi School of Engineering

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2.5D and 3D Objects

Viterbi School of Engineering