Texas-based ICON has unveiled Phoenix, a robotic-arm-mounted 3D printer that can create fully-enclosed, multi-storey structures from a low-carbon mixture, at SXSW.
ICON revealed the demountable crane-based 3D printer during a talk held as part of the annual SXSW festival in Austin,
Phoenix allows ICON to construct multi-storey houses with enclosed systems. It said that it is currently building a prototype outside its headquarters in Austin that will have a dome-like enclosed roof.
ICON has developed a machine to 3D print multi-storey buildings
At 70 feet tall, the crane-like system allows for higher construction than ICON's current printer, the Vulcan, which has a gantry system with the chassis closer to the ground. According to the company, it can print structures up to 27 feet tall (8.2 metres). ICON's proprietary cementitious admixture Lavacrete is distributed from the crane using a "highly integrated" system via a nozzle stabilised by gyroscopes.
Like other 3D-printing construction technologies, it lays layer upon layer of the mix, slowly creating walls that are supported by steel but do not need the extensive formwork ? usually wooden ? that characterises much concrete construction.

Read: NASA funds ICON to develop lunar 3D-printing construction technology

Because of the crane system, the machine can also build multiple structures in a single vicinity with only minor adjustments to the set up of the machine, a...