Construction

CNC, robotic tools, and digital fabrication are beginning to have an impact on residential and commercial construction. This summer, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC is featuring 5 digitally fabricated houses that are being installed on site at the Museum. To one degree or another these houses all rely on CNC for precise cutting of components, cost reduction, and simplification of assembly. ShopBot's contribution to the MoMA display of new technology for homebuilding is unique. It starts with a production process set up by Bill Young that cuts each piece of a digital house. ShopBot Cuts CNC Houses Bill's House Factory The Project Bill Young’s project: Cutting the 600+ sheets of plywood that make up the fascinating "yourHouse: Digitally Fabricated Housing for New Orleans" house that will being assembled at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA; NYC) this summer. The "yourHouse" project is a concept from Larry Sass, architect and faculty at MIT, who is attempting to harness the speed and precision of digital CNC cutters to fabricate simple shelters quickly and inexpensively. With Larry's building technique, joinery takes the form of precise, interlocking notches and grooves rather than traditional screws or nails. And, the whole structure is being cut with a ShopBot ... [Read the Full Story Here]

CNC and Traditional Construction

Traditional construction can also benefits from the use of CNC. Enterprising residential and commercial contractors are now using CNC technology to implement new and better building methods. Both interior and exterior components in a variety of materials, can be accurately cut or machined to shape using a CNC router. Maintenance-free materials, such as PVC, can be cut to produce exterior design elements for new or restoration-type work. Victorian gingerbread, corbels, railing structures and even arched trim and moldings are easily created on the CNC. Specialized support materials, sheet goods, and cladding can be sized and populated with cut-outs and exactly placed through holes, ready to be placed into position.

ShopBot's gantry tools can deliver construction support for these types of projects from the warehouse or nearby factory. Precise components and assemblies can be ready to be ready for delivery to the site, as they are needed and requested from the job.

ShopBot's new, highly mobile Buddy CNC tools take it a step further, bringing CNC right to the job site with PowerSticks that allow many configurations for robotic cutting and machining of sheet materials or lumber, right on the site.

Having a job-related catalog of parts at hand in software, can produce substantial savings and improved quality especially when multiple parts are needed in a structure, or across a subdivision. And consider the scenario of a new component with an unusual shape. You've just received the new piece as a file in an email from an architect. All you'll do is bring the file into ShopBot's PartWorks design software, position it in the outline of your raw material or lumber. And you're ready to cut the part, no matter how intricate, curved, or complex.

     inYou take the DXF and import it into the ShopBot PartWorks CAD/CAM interface. There you scale and position the part on an electronic version of your material, in this case a 4X8 sheet of ¾” PVC. You create some toolpaths and save them to the CNC’s computer. Then you run the part file and the CNC cuts your parts with precision and speed.
 

CNC and SIP Panel Construction

Structural Insulated Panels, or SIPs, are now being used all over the world to create a more energy and labor efficient solution to traditional stick construction. Typically composed of 2 sheets of OSB sandwiching a sheet of polystyrene or polyurethane foam, SIPs can be cut on an extra-large CNC router. The cut panels are ready to install, with rough-outs for all window and door openings, cut exactly according to plan. As the panels come off of the CNC, they are numbered and stacked in sequence, making assembly a straightforward process. For example, check offerings from ShopBot customer, Tri-State Laminates, Lumberton, NC.

ShopBot has produced several custom SIP-cutting CNC tools. By late fall of 2008, we expect to offering a 9'x24' SIP CNC based on our new PRS line of CNC machines. This tool will provide the SIP fabricator a remarkably affordable system for cutting panels. [View Video of Tri_State Laminate's SIP CNC]