Shanghai installs world's first 3-D printed bus shelters

Shanghai has installed a set of 3-D printed bus shelters - believed to be the world's first - to serve a bus line in its suburban Jinshan district.

The 3-D printed bus shelters, built by a company based in Shanghai, feature a closed-loop design that looks like a rectangular frame measuring 5.1 meters long, 1.5 m wide and 2.7 m high. Placed along a country road in Fengjing town, the futuristic structures that come with original ink marks left on the surfaces, are believed to be the world's first produced by 3-D printers, according to 3ders.org, a global news organization dedicated to providing the latest news, trends and analysis in the 3-D printing industry.

"All the printing materials are from recycled and classified industrial waste or tailings," said Wang Aijuan, who is responsible for the 3-D bus stop project at WinSun Construction Technologies. "The printing process is environmentally friendly, because such new technology does not produce additional waste."

According to the company, which has been working on the development of 3-D printing technology for the construction industry and related products for more than a decade, 3-D printing technology can save up to 60 percent of building materials and 50 to 80 percent of manpower, which greatly improves work efficiency and helps save costs.

"Normally, it takes several days to build a bus stop, and traffic is blocked during the construction," Wang said. "However, it takes no more than an hour to set up a 3-D bus stop at the side of the road, after the printing and transportation process."

"In addition, the 3-D printed structures are five times stronger than those built in traditional ways," Wang added.

According to Wang, the 3-D bus stop project has been launched as a pilot program to demonstrate the practicality of this application for the potential 3-D printing of future bus shelters. The company intends to promote the idea nationally and even globally, incorporating more functionality into the bus shelters, such as chairs, garbage cans and a small table.

Many industries and fields in China have embraced 3-D printing technology for its high efficiency and ecological benefits. The country's 3-D printing industry is expected to reach $7.68 billion in output value, or one-third of the global market, by 2020, according to a forecast by the China Industry Information Institute.

As a specialist in 3-D printed buildings, WinSun has attracted many headlines for its various 3-D printed structures, such as 10 single-story houses in Shanghai, a standalone villa in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and 19 local government office buildings in Dubai.