Standing in less than 3 hours, between the last train of the night and the first in the morning: from Japan an idea to replace the old infrastructures.
A railway station printed within one night could only take shape that in Japan, a country of the Shinkansen and the trains seats that are turned to adapt to the direction of travel. The Japanese railway company West Japan Railway Company (JR West) has announced the completion of the first station of the 3D fully printed trains, which will replace an old wooden building of the Hatsushima station, Wakayama prefecture island, on the border with that of Osaka.
From evening to morning. The project had been announced on 11 March, and was carried out on the night of March 26. The construction was entrusted to the company specialized in 3D printing of Case Serendix, which printed the various components of the building in 3D, such as roof and walls, with out of office industrial printers.
The various pieces were then transported on site separately by train, e assembled in a single construction in less than three hoursinserted over time spent between the last evening train and the first in the morning. A flash assembly that has made it possible not to affect the legendary punctuality of Japan trains, clearly lower than that which would have required a normal and halved construction compared to the six -year -old six hours.
As it was built. The station resembles a small bus stop in the area of 10 square meters and has the same anti -seismic characteristics and the durability of a building built with conventional building techniques. 3D printing concerned the cassormthe envelope inside which the jet of the concrete in the fluid state is carried out. This matrix was subsequently filled with concrete and steel reinforcements, thus avoiding the use of traditional wooden and steel structures that propose the masonry works.
Sustainability. In addition to the saving of time there is that of material. It has been estimated half of the reinforced concrete that would be served with the “old” techniques (a material whose production has a significant environmental impact). Halved they also appear Construction costswhile the assembly speed makes the technique particularly suitable for the rapid works of replacement of structures on railway lines and other active transport routes and busy, or where the labor is lacking.
The first of a series. The choice of the Hatsushima station, in the coastal position, as a starting point was not accidental. The idea is to monitor how the 3D printed building will react to constant exposure to the air rich in salt.
If there are no structural problems, the same technique can be used also to replace other old buildings in various stations of the railway network.
Without giving up the specificity of the place: on the facade of the station, typical products of the city of Arida served by the station have been depicted, such as Mandarini Mikan (which we know as Miyagawa) and a kind of fish that swims in these waters, so as to make a building potentially printed in less anonymous and well recognizable series.
