JC 09-24-1021 - 3D Concrete Printer

McMaster University invites qualified bidders to submit responses for the supply of a 3D Concrete Printer in accordance with the terms of this Request for Proposals.
Proponents must quote the entire bid.  Partial bids will not be accepted.  
The requested 3D Concrete Printer will be utilized by the Additively Manufactured Homes for Mobility and Equity (AM-HOME) Laboratory at McMaster University to empower mobile construction in Canada by developing ready-to-use construction techniques for additively manufactured (AM) concrete homes. To provide our communities with resilient housing, laboratory testing using this equipment will be used to quantify the performance of AM homes under severe environmental conditions and extreme dynamic loading scenarios.
The 3D Concrete Printer is essential for the AM-HOME laboratory to perform a multi-scale assessment of AM concrete structures by evaluating the durability and mechanical properties of their materials and components. The public and private sectors will directly benefit from these experimental results by promoting equal housing opportunities. As the field of AM concrete structures is still in its infancy in terms of standardization, the research program will facilitate knowledge mobilization from academia to industrial applications and position Canada as a world leader in this emerging construction field.

The objective of the 3D Concrete Printer (to be housed in AM-HOME laboratory) is to address the current challenges for the adoption of AM concrete as a competitive and reliable construction method to promote equal housing opportunities across different regions in Canada: 1) Quantify the performance of AM concrete houses for seismic design; 2) Explore solutions to enable AM concrete houses to accommodate different Canadian environments; 3) Characterize the response of AM concrete housing to impact and blast loading scenarios. Addressing these challenges require the 3D Concrete Printer to be able to print different specimen sizes ranging from material testing samples to individual structural components (e.g., individual shear walls) and systems (e.g., complete buildings).