Human beings have always worked on improving the standards of living. Ever since the beginning of time, people have been making changes to how they live. Ever since the industrial Revolutions, the manufacturing industry has been changed forever. Machines were being used instead of humans to do the tasks. Similarly in the construction industry we find new and more improved methods to construct huge skyscrapers in less amount of time.
Changes In The Construction Industry
Construction of buildings and monuments have been around for thousands of years. The most common method of construction was using stone slabs that were placed on top of one another with sand and cement like the great pyramids.
Others used wood planks to make their homes. Today in cities, we mostly see concrete building with apartments stacked up one on top to another due to an increase in the population. Most of these buildings use iron or other metals as pillars and use a mixture of sand, cement and gravel with water in proper ratios makes concrete.
Tilt-up Construction
Time is very important in the construction industry. Using bricks and concrete to put up a wall takes time and labor. To save the time here, now a days we have pre manufactured walls called as tilt up walls. Using this new technology, we saw recently that China had put up a hospital with a 1000 beds in just 10 days. This type of method is good for quick construction but apparently it does not seem to hold up too well with earthquakes and other natural disasters. Another thing with this type of construction is that there will be less uniqueness if the walls are pre made in a particular size. But that may soon change with different different type of pre built walls , almost like playing with Lego, having different pieces that can go together.
3D Printing
3d printing has revolutionized both construction and manufacturing companies. It is a machine that prints objects in 3 dimensions from a computer file. Earlier this method was used to print for mass production in manufacturing industry, but now a days 3d printing has become more common. A scientist named Adam Feinberg and his team, has created the first ever fully functional human heart from a 3d printer using a method called Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique.
3d printing is also being used in construction. In 2018, we saw the first ever fully 3d printed 4 bedroom home. The house was build on a 1022 Square feet and it took the printing machine only 54 hours to build the house and it was a a lot cheaper and extremely faster than the traditional method lf building a home.
Changes In The Manufacturing Industry
The manufacturing industry is currently has seen 4 major revolutions that changed the world. They are:
- Mechanization, steam power, weaving loom:- Back in the 1760s, the first revolution was made due to the discovery of steam powered engines that were used for manufacturing goods such as textiles but was majorly important to the transportation system. They used fuel like coal and steam to power these machines and they made life easier for people at that time.
- Mass production, assembly line, electrical energy:- Also known as the "Technological Revolution" this happened nearly 60 years later in the year 1840 mainly in Germany, Britain and America. During this period, electricity was used to power the machines which allowed for even greater production and more fast and advanced machines for production.
- Automation, computers, electronics:- This revolution started during the 1970s when the computers were being made. The use of computers to control the machines with the help of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) introduced automated systems onto the assembly line to perform human tasks without any errors.
- Cyber Physical systems, Internet, Networks:- The current methods of manufacturing are being performed on these bases. The connectivity of the machines to do the tasks that they are assigned to do and they do not require the need for human intervention.
Due to increase in population, the demand for food, land and products kept growing and who know how much they'll continue to grow in the coming years. The manufacturing industry has evolved based on its needs and will continue to do so.