Engineering publications brought to you by Mark Allen

01 Apr 2017

Trump announces plans to 3D print Mexico wall

The US department of Civil Works, the body charged with delivering President Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the US / Mexico border, has unveiled plans to build the controversial structure using 3D printing technology.

Under the proposals, announced in detail at the North American Annual Symposium for Construction (NAASC), fleets of hundreds of autonomous 3D printing robots will build the 20 metre-high, 1000 mile long wall in-situ, at an expected rate of around 10 metres per day.

Featuring specially developed multi-material printing heads, the robots - jointly developed by a US/Russian consortium - are able to simultaneously deposit liquid concrete as well as the wall’s metallic supporting structures (expected to made from a gold alloy).

The systems will use solar panels to harvest energy from the sun providing enough electricity to fuel them throughout the day and to charge batteries to enable 24-hour operation. It’s envisaged that the devices will serviced by autonomous flying drones that will deliver the feedstock for the 3D printing systems.

Once construction of the site is complete the devices will be equipped with motion sensors and machine guns and repurposed as border guards.

Register now to continue reading

Thanks for visiting The Engineer. You’ve now reached your monthly limit of news stories. Register for free to unlock unlimited access to all of our news coverage, as well as premium content including opinion, in-depth features and special reports.