Shaheen, SBA administrator visit Rochester company that 3D prints homes
Madco3D says small homes could be built in a week
ROCHESTER, N.H. — The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration visited businesses in New Hampshire on Friday, including a 3D printing manufacturing facility that some say could help address some of the state's housing problems.
SBA administrator Isabel Guzman and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen visited small businesses in Rochester and Exeter. In Rochester, they toured Madco3D, which aims to transform the construction industry with technology that could allow homes to be built in a week.
"This large retrofitted industrial robot that at one time was welding cars has been converted to 3D print a highly specialized liquid concrete," Dan Bernard, founding partner of Madco3D, said. "We can print an 800-square-foot house in a week or less."
Bernard said the city of Rochester has expressed an interest in creating a community of about 40 homes ranging in size from 400 feet to three-bedroom family homes. The company is working with John and Maggie Randolph, who built a tiny home neighborhood in Dover.
"Our team here in Rochester 3D prints concrete, and John and Maggie execute the sustainable stick-built side," Bernard said.
"With our housing crisis in New Hampshire, this is a way to address it," Shaheen said.
Shaheen said the technology has a lot of potential in different areas.
"We're really excited to watch what happens here in Rochester to see how they work with the city and get this development done," she said. "They're also doing (concrete) that can be used to restore coral reefs. It's so innovative and so exciting to have it happening here in New Hampshire."
"We're seeing over $1.5 billion in infrastructure investments here in New Hampshire, as well as private investments in the hundreds of millions coming into this state to make sure that we're building the manufacturing of the future, the innovation R&D of the future, so this is an exciting time," Guzman said.
