KIT x Kajima 3D Printing Lab was establishes since 2022. Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Kajima Corporation are jointly developing technologies related to cement-based 3D printing and carbon-neutral construction materials. At the same time, we are collaborating with several municipalities to conduct demonstration tests for social implementation.

In recent years, the trend toward digitization of industrial processes has been surging into design and construction in buildings and infrastructures. This is expected to change the conventional process and advance the construction industry. 3D printers can be considered as a technology that plays a role in this. 3D printers have already been introduced and implemented in various industries, but their application to the construction industry is still under development.

In addition, the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 with the aim of resolving the global issue of climate change. As a result, 187 countries and regions around the world are promoting social implementation using innovative technologies toward "Carbon Neutral by 2050". Concrete, which is used in the second largest amount after water, has the property of absorbing and fixing carbon dioxide. In the past, this was viewed as deterioration corroding the embedded rebar. However, if this chemical reaction is effectively utilized, cementitious materials can be used as green materials that contribute to reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Kanazawa Institute of Technology, which has developed a variety of 3D prints, and Kajima Corporation, which has developed technology to absorb and fix carbon dioxide in concrete, are developing designs that satisfy high designability and carbon dioxide absorption. And we are working together to develop the technology to make parts with a small number of people. In addition, we will cooperate with local municipalities in the hope that it will contribute to the safety, security, and comfort of citizens' lives, and that it will be used as a tourism resource that reinforces the charm of Hokuriku. Through these efforts, we aim to create carbon-negative 3D printed components with unique shapes and functions.

The KIT x KAJIMA 3D Printing Lab, which is a co-creation base for these activities, has a robot arm-type 3D printer. There, faculty members from multiple departments and courses are working together with civil, architectural, mechanical, and electrical engineers from Kajima Corporation's head office and the Technical Research Institute. In addition, students belonging to each laboratory are engaged in social implementation research while collaborating across the boundaries of faculties, departments, and majors, and are truly "engineers who think and act on their own."　 In this way, under the co-creation of different fields such as civil, architecture, machinery, robots, electricity, chemistry, psychology, media, and mathematics by different generations from young students to experienced engineers and teachers, industry-academia collaboration technological innovation is underway.　We would appreciate it if you could look forward to it as a lab promoted by industry, academia, and government as one.