Last week, the “World of Concrete” event took place, and I noticed something interesting.
This event is a very large annual conference focused on the concrete and masonry construction industry, taking place this year in Las Vegas. The event explains:
“WOC is the industry’s ONLY annual international tradeshow dedicated to the commercial concrete and masonry construction industries. World of Concrete has been serving the global concrete & masonry construction industries for over 50 years. We connect and educate buyers and sellers through live and digital events throughout the year.”
I wondered whether there were any 3DCP exhibitors at this event, which I was unable to attend. Examining the exhibitor list, I found 17 vendors under the “3D Concrete Printing” category:
- 3D Potter 3D (Clay and Cement Printers)
- Fibo Intercon A/S
- Full Circle Water (waste water filtering)
- MAI International GmbH (mixing and pumping machines)
- Sika (materials)
- Tecwill Concrete Plants (woncrete plants)
- U-STUCCO Green Building Materials (stucco)
- AI Tech (reinforcement)
- DOMAT USA (concrete solutions)
- ICC-ES (technical evaluations)
- Ludwig Moisture Control (moisture measurement)
- RIC Robotics (construction robots)
- Right Mfg Systems (concrete batch equipment)
- Strong Manufacturing Co., Inc. (mixing and pumping)
- TENON by TCC Materials (masonry products)
- Ventures Equipment (equipment)
- Vertigo (advanced concrete printing)
As you might notice, the list includes few actual 3DCP equipment manufacturers, and the more notable players such as COBOD, ICON, etc. are absent. Some of the absences might be explainable due to financial situations: ICON has laid off staff, and Mighty Buildings is for sale.
The companies present at this event under the 3D Concrete Printing category were mostly related services that a 3DCP company might want to use. Processing wastewater, for example, would be required. It appears that these companies are interested in being available for a potentially growing 3DCP industry.
Also present at the event were several construction companies that are known to be at least experimenting in 3DCP. However, for some reason, they chose not to be listed in that category.
It may be that they didn’t feel it was worth doing so.
What does all this tell us? It seems that in spite of the hype around 3DCP, there is probably less movement on the ground than one might expect, or at least 3DCP occupies a very slim piece of the action in the vast construction market.
I’m recalling the situation many years ago when MakerBot decided to exhibit at CES, blasting them into the public eye with a desktop 3D printer. That was an incredibly good strategy, as it basically pushed the whole desktop 3D printing industry into mainstream attention.
It doesn’t look like that is happening in 3DCP — at least not yet.
