3D Printing the Future

This is a guest blog by Richard Clarke, Programme Manager (Engineering Innovation) at United Utilities for the Water Industry Printfrastructure project, which was awarded funding in Water Breakthrough Challenge 3. The project is developing 3D printing for construction of infrastructure in the water sector.

Background to the collaboration

The first seeds of the Water Industry Printfrastructure (WIP) project were sown five years ago when ChangeMaker3D joined United Utilities’ Innovation Lab with the aim to test whether 3D concrete printing technology was viable in the water sector.

At that time, 3D printing didn’t have a role in the water sector. The partnership forged in the Innovation Lab quickly matured into a robust collaboration which led to United Utilities becoming ChangeMaker3D’s first water customer, first to install water tanks, and first to get printing achieved in-situ.

In 2022 United Utilities and ChangeMaker3D went on to deliver a first for the water industry by printing, installing and testing a 3D-printed wastewater chamber at a United Utilities test facility in Cheshire.

This proved to be a huge step forward for the development of ‘printfrastructure’ in the sector.

At the same time, United Utilities also started investigating the use of 3D plastic printing with the help of the PrintCity team at Manchester Metropolitan University, who introduced a whole new world of 3D plastics printing.

3D plastic printing provides us with the ability to use our assets for longer. It means we can print parts that are no longer available and extend the life of our equipment. As well as reducing our impact on the environment, it can enhance operational resilience.

With those strong foundations in place, the development of printfrastructure took another leap forward in May 2023, when United Utilities, working with ChangeMaker3D, Manchester Metropolitan University and Scottish Water, was awarded more than £1.5 million through the Ofwat Innovation Fund to examine how printing, with both concrete and plastics, could be embedded into the UK water sector.

The Printfrastructure project

Since the project began almost two years ago, the team have celebrated several breakthroughs.

In June 2024, United Utilities hosted a temporary 3D concrete printing hub where assets used in the sector were printed in a matter of hours compared to the several days it would take using traditional methods of constructing with concrete.

The printing process for a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) chamber is just over an hour, they are then left for a minimum of three hours to dry. This compares to two days needed using traditional methods. Some small items were printed in as a little as 45 minutes.

The hub, at Wigan Wastewater Treatment Works, was also used to demonstrate the benefits of this innovative process to other water companies, construction partners and other industries.

The technique is financially and environmentally efficient. A detailed, independent carbon assessment of the items printed through the project found that carbon savings of around 50% can be achieved.

This approach has also improved the health and safety on sites by reducing the requirement to work at height or in confined spaces.

Using the printing hub, a range of products were produced using robotics and materials from CyBe robotics. Some of the items produced will be shared with Scottish Water for trialling on a project on their network.

And 2025 got off to a great start when we pushed the limits of 3D concrete printing by testing it in cold weather. The printer coped well in the open air despite the cold, damp and icy conditions and we successfully printed manhole rings and a distribution chamber.

It’s an exciting development that offers potential to extend the concrete pouring season. Construction with concrete is generally limited by ambient temperature; we avoid pouring concrete at temperatures below 5 degrees Celcius. 3D printing can go well below that temperature and even below zero. In addition to this we see 3D printing as an additional capability working alongside our traditional engineering disciplines. We are therefore expanding on what we do to achieve the increased demands of our 2025-30 business plan.

The plastics work package has also produced several items that we’re now using in everyday operations at United Utilities, such as collars for the cameras used in sewer pipes and a trough for water monitoring equipment.

This brings benefits around adaptability, timing and carbon. 3D printing the trough, for example, gives us the option to very quickly change the design if we want to upgrade the monitoring probes, and it’s a lot less carbon intensive than injection moulding. It’s a small item, but when you think of the 2,000 or so units that we’ll be using across the business, you’re looking at a big saving.

Now that we’re coming to the end of the project, it’s time to look at commercial models for this technology.

Looking to the future

We’re not looking to 3D printing to completely replace traditional methods of material construction. It’s about enhancing what we do and adding to our capabilities. Although these techniques aren’t yet fully embedded, we hope that as more awareness is raised, they will be in the future, not just here at United Utilities but across the sector. The sector has a huge investment programme coming its way and we need to be flexible and have as many tools as possible to deliver it. This is just one way of doing that.

In some cases, we will want to own the printers. Indeed, United Utilities has already invested in one. In other cases we will work with either our contractor partners or ChangeMaker3D. For mass plastic printing jobs, it probably makes more sense to use a printing warehouse.

Whatever the ownership model, the key is to get the design correct – once you’ve got that, you can upload it onto a central database and print as many as you like.

Because the project is 90 per cent funded by the water customers of England and Wales, through the Ofwat Innovation Fund, it’s important that all our learnings are shared, and we’ve been doing that throughout the course of the project.

More than 70 visitors attended the concrete printing demonstration at Wigan WwTW from organisations including Scottish Water, Sellafield, Anglian Water and Ofwat. The project team also presented at the European Wastewater Management Conference 2024.

Reports for the WIP project will be finalised in the second quarter of 2025 and United Utilities is hosting a WIP day at its head office in Warrington in May 2025 – details will be promoted through the Spring Innovation Platform.