Black Buffalo 3D
Luigi Di Geso, MAPEI North America's President and CEO; Marco Squinzi, MAPEI Global Co-CEO; Kevin Smith, MAPEI CRS Director of Product Development and Product Management; Peter Cooperman, BB3D Interim CMO; and George Perry, BB3D Head of Technology
Black Buffalo 3D Corporation has been awarded the gold Global Innovation award at The Nationals, an awards event presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
The award is in recognition of providing the first 3D printed construction solution to comply with International Code Council Evaluation Service’s (ICC-ES) standards for structural walls, ICC-ES AC509.
According to NAHB, the Global Innovation award recognises ‘the most advanced and cutting-edge’ original products, services, homes, communities and ‘champions’ of the building industry worldwide.
The solution from Black Buffalo 3D includes the Planitop 3D ink, created in partnership with Mapei Corporation, and the company’s NEXCON 3D construction printer. According to the company, the ink can consistently print high-quality walls in different environmental conditions.
Over 70 companies competed alongside BB3D this year, the largest pool of applicants to date for the award.
“Black Buffalo 3D recognised early on that standardisation would be the key to adoption. To date, every 3D printed construction project has been a one-off exception or relied upon methods of traditional coding to be approved,” said Peter Cooperman, Interim CMO. “Our goal in focusing so heavily on R&D, field and lab testing our technology is to move beyond pilots and see 3D construction printing technology become integrated with traditional construction projects globally.”
Black Buffalo 3D
Black Buffalo 3D's NEXCON 3D printer
Luigi Di Geso, President and CEO of Mapei Corporation said: “We congratulate Black Buffalo 3D on the NAHB Global Innovation award. This industry recognition underscores a fact that we’ve known all along that this 3D printing system developed by MAPEI and Black Buffalo 3D is industry changing.
“The only 3D mortar/ink to be ICC-ES AC509 certified, walls that are printed with MAPEI’s Planitop 3D and Black Buffalo 3D NEXCON printers can be considered equivalent to concrete masonry units (CMU) block. This is a huge shift in construction trends and will allow us to help address the scarcity of low-income housing in an innovative, efficient and affordable manner.”
Cooperman spoke to TCT for TCT Magazine North America Volume 9 Issue 1 about how the ICC-ES certification was achieved. You can read the magazine online here.
