FULL SCALE CONTOUR CRAFTING APPLICATIONS

by

Laura Haymond

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A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF BUILDING SCIENCE
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May 2008

Copyright 2008 Laura Haymond

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Copyright 2008 by
Haymond, Laura

All rights reserved

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1454117
2008
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A huge thank you to Doug Noble, Kara Bartelt, and Marc Schiler for all

their help and support. Also to Behrokh Khoshnevis whose aid was essential in

completing this thesis. And to Eve Lin and Mina Chow whose friendship and

persistence kept me going.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement ii

List of Figures iv

Abstract vii

Chapter 01: Introduction 1

Chapter 02: Automation in Construction 8

2.1 Rapid Prototyping 12
2.2 The System of Contour Crafting 17

Chapter 03: Proposed Applications for Contour Crafting 22

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3.1 Using Contour Crafting for Urban Infrastructure 22
3.2 Contour Crafting for Emergency Response 24
3.3 Single Family Housing 27

4.1 Steel Framing

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Chapter 04: Alternative Construction Methods in Single Family Housing 29
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4.2 Insulated Concrete Forms 33
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4.3 Prefabricated Housing 37

Chapter 05: Applying Contour Crafting to Single Family Housing 43

5.1 Site Work 43
5.2 Structure 47
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5.3 Systems 59
5.4 Finishes 76

Chapter 06: Sustainability Potential of Contour Crafting 83

6.1 Reducing the Carbon Footprint 84
6.2 Life Cycle Costs 86
6.3 Recyclability 87
6.4 Contour Crafting and LEED 87

Chapter 07: Conclusions and Future Work 100

7.1 Future Work 102

Bibliography 104

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Waste Generated On Site During Construction 1

Figure 2 Fatal Injuries Divided by Industry 4

Figure 3 Non Fatal Injuries Divided by Industry 4

Figure 4 SMART System Outline 11

Figure 5 Stereolithography 13

Figure 6 Selective Laser Sintering 14

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Figure 7 Electron Beam Modeling 15

Figure 8 3D Printer Diagram 16

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Figure 9 Object Generated Through 3D Printing 16

Figure 10 Behrokh Khoshnevis and Full Scale Wall

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Extruded by Contour Crafting 17

Figure 11 Contour Crafting System 18

Figure 12 Forms Extruded Using Contour Crafting 19

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Figure 13 Full Scale Wall Section Extruded Using Contour Crafting 20

Figure 14 Projected Cost Contour Crafting 21

Figure 15 Contour Crafting for Infrastructure 23

Figure 16 Steel Framed House Under Construction 30

Figure 17 Standard ICF 33

Figure 18 ICF Blocks available from ARXX 33

Figure 19 Stacking ICF Blocks 34

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Figure 20 Curved Forms Available with ICF 35

Figure 21 Sources of Energy Loss and Savings Through ICF 36

Figure 22 An ICF House Survives Hurricane Katrina in 2006 36

Figure 23 Manufactured Home 38

Figure 24 Module Prefabricated Housing 39

Figure 25 Prefab Kit of Panels 40

Figure 26 Examples of Colored Concrete Used For

Exterior Pavers and Walkways 45

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Figure 27 Example of Contour Crafted Planter 45

Figure 28 Possible Irregular CC Planter 46

for Site Work Tasks

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Figure 29 Summary of Suitability of Contour Crafting
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Figure 30 Possible Integration of CC to Generate
Crawlspace Foundation 48

Figure 31 Typical CC Wall Section and Wood Framed Wall Section 49

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Figure 32 Typical Metal Decking 52

Figure 33 Possible Connection of Beam to CC Wall 53

Figure 34 Solid Extruded CC Stairs 54

Figure 35 CC Used to Generate Stair Guidance Ledges 54

Figure 36 Possible Method of Generating Vaulted Roofs with CC 56

Figure 37 Integration of Door and Window Openings with CC 58

Figure 38 Summary of Suitability of Contour

Crafting for Structure Elements 59

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Figure 39 2x4 Furring Against Concrete or Masonry Walls 62

Figure 40 Schematic Plumbing Wall for Contour Crafting 63

Figure 41 Possible Solutions for Embedded Wall Electrical Receptacles 66

Figure 42 Typical Composite Flooring 67

Figure 43 Typical Floor Electric Receptacle 68

Figure 44 Example of Raceways 69

Figure 45 Summary of Compatiblity Between Contour

Crafting and Known Electrical Wiring Methods 70

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Figure 46 Possible Generation of LED Lightshelf By CC 71

Figure 47 Summary of Integration Compatibility Between

Known Types of Lighting and Contour Crafting
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Figure 48 Table taken from Edward Allen and Rob Thallon's

Fundamentals of Residential Construction 73
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Figure 49 Adapted Forced Air HVAC System to CC 74

Figure 50 Compatibility Summary of Integrating Contour

Crafting with Known HVAC Solutions 76
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Figure 51 Examples of Colored Concrete Floors for Interior Spaces. 78

Figure 52 Compatibility of Contour Crafting with Known Floor Finishes 79

Figure 53 Summary of Compatibility of CC and Wall Finishes 82

Figure 54 Contour Crafting and LEED 88

Figure 55 CC Wall R-Value 93

Figure 56 HEED Results for Contour Crafted Home 94

Figure 57 Comparison of Contour Crafting to Other Existing

Methods of Costruction 100

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 ABSTRACT

Contour Crafting (CC) is an extrusion based method of rapid prototyping

being introduced as a method of automating construction. This thesis takes a

critical look at applying the system of Contour Crafting to single family housing

and how the system could integrate with regards to site work, structure, systems,

and finishes. This thesis also explores the potential sustainability of CC with

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regards to the reductions in carbon footprints and life cycle costs and utilizing

LEED for Homes as a means of defining other potentially sustainable aspects of

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CC. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the

systems Contour Crafting and to determine if this new method of construction is

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appropriate for single family housing.
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Chapter 01: Introduction

In the field of construction there is a set of ever present issues plaguing the

industry. Issues regarding quality control, labor efficiency, waste management,

time needed for construction, cost

control, and injuries to workers

are particularly dominant.

Traditional methods of

construction of yielded no

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significant improvements

regarding these issues. Therefore

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Figure 1 Waste Generated On Site During Construction
Copyright 2008 Haymond
new methods of construction need
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to be explored as a means of solving these particular problems.

According the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is estimated that

in a single year construction and demolition generated 136 million tons of building
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related debris and waste that ended up in landfills. According to the U.S. Green

Building Council, this accounts for 30% of the waste generated by the United

States annually. In a time when green building and sustainable thinking has taken a

foothold in the forefront of the building industry, these numbers cannot be ignored.

The site in Figure 1 is too common a sight within the construction industry.

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 Contributing to these statistics are aspects of the construction industry that

have persisted through time despite attempts made to correct said aspects.

Construction is plagued with “high accident rates, low quality, insufficient control

of the construction site, and the vanishing of skilled workforce” (Warszawski 01).

Quality control in particular can be a frustrating and often costly point of

contention between architects and contractors. Mistakes made on the construction

site, for example, can result in discrepancies between the drawings and the actual

built product. Such mistakes often lead the requirement of tearing down said

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discrepancies to be rebuilt. These actions lead to more waste being generated to

contribute to the 136 million tons. IE

Discrepancies in construction between the as-built product and the
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architect’s drawings lead to costly corrections in time, money, and resources. In

order to offset some of these expensive corrections the construction industry has

taken several approaches. Alternative construction methods are being explored such
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as the prefabrication of housing has been developed and improved upon, and

automation in construction has been introduced into the industry. Automating

construction, however, has been met with mixed responses.

Currently automation in construction is limited to specific tasks within the

industry, such as painting, but this is changing. For example, Japan is currently

combining task specific robots in the attempt of automating both tunnel

construction and bridge construction (Gambao 01). As these are both high risk

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construction examples, the concern for human safety stands as a strong contributing

factor.

According to a census performed by the US Department of Labor, the

construction industry accounted for 1,226 fatal work injuries in the year of 2006.

This gave the construction industry the highest number fatalities of any industry

sector as illustrated in Figure 2 and the fourth highest rate of fatalities of all

industries . This is in addition to the 3,857 injuries reported in the year of 2006

shown in Figure 3 thus giving the construction industry a rate of 1out of 20 workers

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being injured on the job. As the construction industry continues to grow these

numbers will only increase if steps are not taken and alternatives not found.
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Figure 2 Fatal Injuries Divided by Industry
Copyright 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
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Figure 3 Non Fatal Injuries Divided by Industry

Copyright 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
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 Increased automation in construction is often put forth as a solution to the

dominant persisting challenges plaguing the construction industry, however this

method has been a point of debate within the industry for decades. As automation

capabilities go on to improve other industries such as manufacturing and

automobile construction, there is a distinct lack of advancement in the way

buildings are being put together. Some of the reasons behind this are due to forces

that resist the introduction of automation into the construction industry, fear of loss

of jobs for example. However, as a means of creating a safer and more

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environmentally friendly means of constructions, all possible alternatives must be

pushed. IE
Rapid prototyping is the method through which 3-dimensional objects
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generated by a computer are given physical form. There are two approaches in how

methods are developed through which this process is done, additive and

subtractive. Subtractive methods, such as sintering, carve the desired form from a
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solid piece of material, usually plastic or metal. Additive methods, such as

Stereolithography and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), build up the desired

form layer by layer using a variety of plastics and metal alloys. Usually additive

systems involve a heat source, such as a laser, and a powder form of the material

desired. The form is then generated by melting layer by layer of material until the

entire form has been constructed.

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 While there has been significant advancement in the field of rapid

prototyping with regards to speed, available material, accuracy of systems, etc. ,

attempts to extrapolate known systems into the field of construction have been

faced with certain limitations inherent in the systems themselves. All subtractive

systems, which generate 3D forms by subtracting material from a given source, are

limited in size by how large a solid piece of material can be procured. Standard

additive systems are limited by different aspects of their system. 3D Printing

devices are limited by the size of the chamber with its moving platform, as are

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Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and FDM systems. Current additive systems are

also constrained by the types of materials they use, both metal alloys and plastics
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often ill suited to general construction. The sheer complexity and scale of general
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construction has generally served as a deterrent from trying to employ rapid

prototyping as a means of automating any part of the construction save individual

components used more in manufacturing.

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The Contour Crafting system was developed by University of Southern

California Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis as a means of employing rapid

prototyping technology to extrude the walls of a building using concrete or adobe

as a construction material. While the system is still in the development phase

Professor Khoshnevis has suggested that Contour Crafting will revolutionize the

construction industry.

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 The purpose of this study is to take a critical look at this new system and

how it can be applied to the various purposes projected by Khoshnevis. The

intention is to isolate the most appropriate use for this new technology through a

critical analysis of the pros and cons of this new system per proposed application.

Once the most appropriate function has been confirmed this study will then break

down said application into a more detailed critical analysis to discern where exactly

this new technology is, how it can be used, and what the potential challenges will

be when applied to full scale use. After the potential challenges have been

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determined prospective solutions will then be generated in order to bring this

evolving technology to market. IE

As seeking out and exploring more sustainable construction alternatives is
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one of the forefront concerns of the current market, another focus of this study will

be an attempt to determine if Contour Crafting is a sustainable alternative to the

standard method of construction dominating the market. This will be done by

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examining both the embodied energy of both systems and the life-cycle costs of

Contour Crafting and the traditional alternative. The possible sustainability of

Contour Crafting will also be explored by using computer simulation tools to

compare the performance of a building made with Contour Crafting to an

equivalent building constructed by the market dominant method of construction.

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Chapter 02: Automation in Construction

In 1986 in his article, “Construction Robotics: A Perspective,” Whittaker

points out that, “labor efficiency is alarmingly low in construction.” He goes on to

note how the construction industry is plagued with, “a high accident rate; low

quality; insufficient control of the construction site; and the vanishing of a skilled

workforce,” (Whittaker 1986). Ten years later John G. Everett noted in his article,

“Construction Automation: Demands and Satisfiers in the USA and Japan,” that,

“the construction industries in the United States and Japan face problems in

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productivity, quality, safety, and skilled-labor availability,” (Everett 1996). As a

method of improving these aspects of the construction industry the use of robotics
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has been pursued.
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According to Ernest Gamboa, author of the article “Robotics and

Automation in Construction,” published in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine

in 2002, automation in construction is divided into 2 major categories: civil

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infrastructure and house building. Civil infrastructure includes robots and

automatic processes with regards to road building, tunnel construction, excavation,

bridge construction, etc. Automating processes regarding home building typical

focus on structure erection, structure assembly, concrete compaction, finishes, etc.

Gamboa further divides processes within these two major divisions into the

development of new processes and the adaption of existing processes for

automation (Gamboa 2005).

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 Within the field of civil infrastructure Gamboa cites several R&D projects

that have been going on around the world. The first mentioned is the development

of the EU Computer Integrated Road Construction in Europe which proposed to,

“develop precision systems for the real-time control of the positioning of road

construction equipment” (CORDIS 2003). This system that projected a 5% savings

and significant improvement over quality control of road construction. The field of

automating tunnel construction and excavation projects in Japan has also grown.

Considering the significant risk of injury to workers with regards to tunnel

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construction the approach of creating full automation of tunnel construction has

been taken up by several companies. Japanese companies are also heavily investing
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in the research and development of automation processes to aid in the construction
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of large infrastructure elements such as bridges and dams. One such project as

Gamboa noted was the use of SCARA robots for dam construction (Gamboa 2005).

Within the field of automating construction processes relevant to home

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construction there appears to be an emphasis on high rise residential buildings.

Japanese companies in particular have been focusing on this field in part due to

increasing urban density. However, as varied aspects of home building exist so do

the approaches in automating them. These approaches range from developing

robots to handle painting to utilizing spray robots all the way to automating the

manufacturing of individual wall panels.

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 One of the fields of automating construction that Gamboa does not speak

about is the use of automation with regards to constructing large scale office and

retail space. The category falls under neither civil infrastructure nor house building

but possesses interest and a series of developments all its own. Many of these

developments even having been already been tested out in the field.

One of the first demonstrations of in the field use of automation in

construction was the use of the SMART system in Japan in 1994. The SMART

system was developed within the context of promoting Computer Integrated

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Construction (CIC) as an, “approach to assist construction firms by introducing

computer technologies in response to the difficult environment in which they

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currently operate,” (Yamazaki 1998). The SMART system itself is described by
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Yamazaki is illustrated in Figure 4 and described as,

“an integrated automated construction system which

automates a wide range of construction procedures,
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including the erection and welding of steel-frames;

the placement of pre-cast concrete floor planks,
exterior and interior wall panels; and installation of
various units. The system utilizes prefabricated
components extensively including columns, beams,
floorings and walls, and the assembly of these
components is simplified by the use of specially
designed joints. In addition, this assembly process is
orchestrated by real-time computer control,
resulting in construction site operation in a highly
automated way.”

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Figure 4 SMART System Outline Copyright 1998 Yusuke Yamazaki

The SMART system works by constructing an entire floor of a building

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floor by floor before propelling itself upward to begin on the next floor. In the field

this system proved most valuable for larger scale construction, particularly in

constructing office space and residential spaces. In a case study done on the
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commercial HDB HUB building in Singapore it was revealed that by utilizing the

SMART system the owner acquired savings in the form of 4 months off

construction time, 17% in manpower requirements, and a minimum of $4 per m2

when compared to the industry standard (Singapore Building and Construction

Authority 2005).

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 The concept of building up a structure layer by layer is ancient in of itself.

Bricks are set with mortar, stone walls by Romans constructed by fitting stones

together without mortar, adobe walls built up from the earth, etc. While the concept

of layering as a means of construction lies steeped in the past, innovative new

technologies and new approaches have landed this technique squarely in the present

as a means of providing potential for the future.

With the development of computers and the advancement of being able to

define three dimensional objects virtually, there developed the need for a method of

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taking virtually defined three dimensional objects and translating them into

physical objects with the same properties. As a means of fulfilling this need various
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approaches to what were eventually labeled as “rapid prototyping” techniques were
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developed.

2.1 Rapid Prototyping

One of the earliest means of providing rapid prototyping capabilities was through
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the use the stereolithography (SLA). Patented in 1986, this approach used a

combination of photosensitive polymers, lasers, mirrors, a UV oven, and a movable

platform to generate 3D objects. Objects were defined through computer models

and built up through cross-sectional pieces approximately .05mm to .15mm in

thickness. Once the desired form was completely generated using the photo-curable

resin the object was baked using UV light to harden the desired form.

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Figure 5 Stereolithography Copyright 2001 Princeton University
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SLA was limited to only being effective for low volume prototyping,

approximately 1-10 samples, and was also constrained by available materials.

Another constraint was the size of model available was limited to only models
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capable of fitting within the photo-curable resin chamber. As a result SLA proved

most adequate for printing patterns for plastic and metal parts, test fitting

prototypes, and presentation models.

During the same time period, mid 1980’s, another process was developed

called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)and patented by Dr. Carl Deckard of the

University of Texas in Austin. SLS uses lasers and powders of either ceramics,

metals, polymers, or plastics to build up 3d forms. Powder of the desired material is

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automatically spread over an adjustable platform and the needed cross section for

the desired object is melted using the heat from the lasers. Once completed another

thin layer of material powder is spread of the previous one and the process is

repeated, the heat from the laser fusing the new layer to the previous one.

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Figure 6 Selective Laser Sintering Copyright 2008 Arptech

One of the advantages of SLS over SLA is the choice of available materials that

can be used. As a result SLS is better at generating objects comparable to what

would be available through conventional manufacturing. Another advantage of SLS

over SLA is the fact that after the 3d form has been generated there is little to no

other required processing, in contrast the UV oven SLA objects must be baked in

before removal. The only real limitations of SLS are the inability to combine

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materials to create more complex pieces, and the size of the generated objects in

constrained to the dimensions of the adjustable platform. Currently SLS is most

often used to generate functioning plastic and metal parts for engineering

prototypes.

Another method of generating the physical form of a computer model is

through Electron Beam Modeling (EBM) shown in Figure 7. Utilizing an electron

beam, temperatures up to 2500˚C, and a vacuum chamber, this technology melts

metal powder layer by layer to create forms. Due to its method of scanning and

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layering, EBM is considerably faster than previously described methods of rapid

prototyping. With superior speed and materials such as titanium alloys available for
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use the EBM technology is in high demand for producing medical implants and
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other similar technologies.
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Figure 7 Electron Beam Modeling Copyright 2008 Synergeering Group

3D Printing is another popular rapid prototyping technology, although not

used for generating medical implants. It is used, however, for generating full color

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models by utilizing inkjet print heads, supporting powder (plaster, cornstarch, or

resin), and an adjustable platform shown in Figure 8.

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Figure 8 3D Printer Diagram Copyright 2007 Rapid Prototyping Center

With the ability to produce models at 2-3 layers per minute, 3D printing is well
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suited for creating fast, rough, full color models of desired objects as illustrated in
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Figure 9. However, because the models lack accuracy required for manufacturing,

3D printing tends to not be used for creating models intended for manufacturing

purposes or for generating molds.

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Figure 9 Object Generated Through 3D Printing

Copyright 2007 Computer Language Company Inc.

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