ABB Robots and 3D-Printed Concrete Buildings

From hand-tied rebar in 1959 to Denmark's 36-home printed village, and how ABB IRB 6700 robots print walls for a Red Cross office and a Japanese station.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/25/20261 min read

In August 1959, workers at Schiphol airport were tying steel reinforcement by hand for new concrete built for the jet age. Most concrete buildings still start that way. Carpenters build formwork, fixers tie the rebar, a crew pours, and days later the forms come off again.

Black and white photo of workers bending over steel reinforcing bars on a building site
Black and white photo of workers bending over steel reinforcing bars on a building site

Concrete workers tying reinforcement at Schiphol airport, August 1959. Photo: Wim van Rossem / Anefo, Nationaal Archief via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Printing concrete skips the formwork. A nozzle lays down a bead of mortar layer by layer, following a digital model. Early research printers, like this gantry at TU Eindhoven in 2016, were slow and experimental. Now even the military trains with them, as US Marines did on Okinawa in August 2025.

Large yellow and black gantry printer frame in a university workshop
Large yellow and black gantry printer frame in a university workshop

The research gantry 3D concrete printer at TU Eindhoven, 2016. Photo: Misanthropic One / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

This month, Robotics & Automation News reported on Skovsporet in Holstebro, Denmark, now Europe's largest 3D-printed housing project. One COBOD printer and a crew of three printed all 36 student apartments, finishing each six-unit building in five working days, and the first residents have moved in.

Printer nozzle laying layers of grey concrete with a Marine in a red helmet in the background
Printer nozzle laying layers of grey concrete with a Marine in a red helmet in the background

US Marines train with a 3D concrete printer on Okinawa, August 2025. Photo: US Marine Corps via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

ABB robots do this work too. In Warendorf-Beckum, Germany, an ABB IRB 6700 printed the walls for a new German Red Cross headquarters, the first 3D-printed non-residential building in the country. I like the arm approach, because a six-axis robot can follow curves and corners more freely than a gantry moving on straight rails.

White ABB robot arm printing a curved layered concrete wall on a building site
White ABB robot arm printing a curved layered concrete wall on a building site

An ABB IRB 6700 printing the walls of the German Red Cross headquarters in Warendorf-Beckum. Photo: ABB

In Japan, Serendix used an IRB 6700 fitted with a Vertico nozzle to print the parts of a new station building for JR West at Hatsushima. The pieces were printed in a factory and put together on site in a single night. A wooden replacement would have taken about two months and cost up to twice as much.

ABB robot arm on a long rail printing a concrete block inside a steel-framed workshop
ABB robot arm on a long rail printing a concrete block inside a steel-framed workshop

Serendix's ABB IRB 6700 printing station parts for JR West in its factory. Photo: ABB

My guess is that more of the house will be printed in factories, with robots going on site only for the awkward parts. That matters for ordinary homeowners too. A garden studio or an extension that goes up in days with a small crew would make building a lot less painful.

Close-up of a printing nozzle over wavy layered concrete walls
Close-up of a printing nozzle over wavy layered concrete walls

The Vertico nozzle on the ABB robot laying concrete layers. Photo: ABB

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