Creating affordable housing in remote regions—this is possible thanks to a large-format 3D printer from the Italian company WASP, which builds house walls using clay. To ensure the printer can perform this work reliably and without constant servicing despite high levels of dust and dirt, engineers in Italy rely on lubricant-free sliding chains made of high-performance plastic from igus in Cologne.

Potter wasps can build their own homes from natural materials they collect in their surroundings. This is a mechanism that the Italian company WASP used as a model to develop the modular 3D printer Crane WASP, which builds house walls from clay on construction sites. With its help, for example, the TECLA House in Massa Lombarda, Italy, was created—the world’s first 3D-printed, dome-shaped building made entirely from a mixture of earth and water. WASP’s goal is to offer a technological solution that enables the cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and rapid creation of housing in off-grid regions. This is because Crane WASP allows houses to be constructed from locally sourced natural materials, agricultural waste, and standardized building materials.

The 3D printer consists of a main printing unit that can be assembled in various configurations. The printing area of a single unit has a diameter of 8.2 meters and a height of 3.2 meters. The Crane WASP features a vertical lifting mast and a height-adjustable boom that can swivel 360 degrees. A clay extruder moves horizontally along the boom, building up the walls of the building layer by layer. A process that took 200 hours for the Tecla House. A project of this magnitude places considerable strain on the components of the 3D printer. The bearing points, over which the print head moves for hours on the Z-boom and which are constantly exposed to dust and dirt, are particularly stressed. The WASP team recognized the risk that these particles could destroy the lubricating film in metal bearings, cause mechanical abrasion, and increase friction and wear. The worst-case scenario would be bearing failure. For this reason, WASP sought a dirt-resistant alternative to conventional metal bearings.

The team opted for drylin R JUM-01-50 sliding sheets made from the high-performance plastic iglidur J by igus. The carriage carrying the print head glides over these sheets on the aluminum struts of the arm. The unique feature: No grease is required, as igus integrates solid lubricants into the high-performance plastic that are released during operation and enable dry running for years. Thanks to the igus sliding films, the 3D printer’s mechanics are not only more dirt-resistant and fail-safe, but lubrication work is also no longer necessary. This eliminates time-consuming maintenance work and reduces operating costs in daily use. Another advantage of the high-performance plastic sliding films: they are up to 80 percent lighter than comparable metal bearings. According to WASP, their lower mass improves the precision and response speed of the print head, and thus the print quality. Designers do not have to compromise on robustness. The sliding films are designed to absorb both lateral and axial loads during the movement of the print head. They are also resistant to moisture and temperature fluctuations. With these properties, they ensure that the 3D printer operates reliably even under difficult conditions.

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