First 3-D printed bus shelters appear in Shanghai suburb
January 23, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Shanghai has installed a set of 3-D printed bus shelters to serve a bus line in suburban Jinshan district. The 3-D printed bus shelters, built by a company based in Shanghai, feature a closed-loop design that looks like a rectangular frame measuring 5.1 meters long, 1.5 m wide and 2.7 m high. Placed along a country road in Fengjing town, the futuristic structures that come with original ink marks left on the surfaces, are believed to be the world’s first produced by 3-D printers, according to 3ders.org, a global news organization dedicated to providing the latest news, trends and analysis in the 3-D printing industry. “All the printing materials are from recycled industrial waste or tailings,” said Wang Aijuan, who is responsible for the 3-D bus stop project at WinSun Construction Technologies. “The printing process is environmentally friendly, because such new technology does not produce additional waste.”
According to the company, which has been working on the development of 3-D printing technology for the construction industry and related products for more than a decade, 3-D printing technology can save up to 60% of building materials and 50% to 80% of manpower, which greatly improves work efficiency and helps save costs. “Normally, it takes several days to build a bus stop, and traffic is blocked during the construction,” Wang said. “However, it takes no more than an hour to set up a 3-D bus stop at the side of the road, after printing and transportation.” “In addition, the 3-D printed structures are five times stronger than those built in traditional ways,” Wang added. The company intends to promote the idea nationally and even globally, incorporating more functionality into the bus shelters, such as chairs, garbage cans and a small table. Many industries and fields in China have embraced 3-D printing technology for its high efficiency and ecological benefits.
The country’s 3-D printing industry is expected to reach USD7.68 billion in output value, or one-third of the global market, by 2020, according to a forecast by the China Industry Information Institute, the China Daily reports.
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