SCG and COBOD unveil first 3D-printed Medical Center in Thailand

Siam Cement Group (SCG), the largest and oldest cement and building materials company in Thailand and Southeast Asia, has announced the completion of the first two-story 3D printed building in ASEAN and the first 3D printed medical center in the world.

The two-story medical center in Saraburi, Thailand, was built with a COBOD BOD2 3D concrete printer and has a total floor area of 345 m². With its corrugated walls, it demonstrates the advantages of 3D printing technology: free design, increased construction speed and less labor compared to conventional construction methods.

Simon Klint Bergh, COBOD Co-Founder and Head of APAC, commented: “Last year I was proud to announce our local partnership with SCG for introducing our technology to the Thai market. Now, the SCG team has truly shown the whole world, why they are the right partner with this fantastic accomplishment of printing a design-free structure like this. With this SCG is setting new standards for what can be done and showing the way for the market.”

SCG is offering the market the opportunity to increase construction efficiency, reduce environmental footprint and improve design. The building was specifically designed to withstand seismic loads, and the use of 3D printing technology has increased construction speed and reduced labor.

In other countries, 3D printing is mainly used for single-story residential buildings, but COBOD’s technology can do much more. COBOD printers have been used in Africa to build schools and in Japan for industrial applications, while PERI in Austria has used the technology for an office expansion.

Commenting on SCG’s use of the printer and the plans for the future, Mr. Chalermwut Snguanyat, 3D printing & fabric concrete technology director from SCG said: “Besides demonstrating SCG capability to build a two-story commercial building using the COBOD printer, the project’s highlight was to implement our research on a 3D printed structure. In this building, we successfully implemented results from our collaborative studies with top-tier universities in Thailand for constructing a one-story 3D printed load-bearing structure and a two-story 3D printed non-load bearing structure. The design of the 3D printed medical center was approved by a senior professional engineer.

The materials used in this building were SCG 3D printing mortars with strength classes of C75/80 and C30/35 for load-bearing and non-load-bearing 3D printed walls, respectively. As CPAC 3D printing solution under the SCG cement company umbrella, we aim to create best practices and standards for 3D printing construction. Moreover, our commitment is to help the construction industry become more sustainable and carbon-neutral through innovation and technology”.

Find out more about COBOD at cobod.com.

For more information about Siam Cement Group, please visit scg.com.