Additive manufacturing of glass masonry units

Daniel Massimino

Research Projects • Other Projects • Photography • Email

Hello! I’m Daniel, a PhD student at MIT in Mechanical Engineering. I am currently working in the Fabrication Integrated Design Lab (FIDL). I am investigating using glass additive manufacturing as a building material in partnership with Evenline Inc.

I am broadly interested in the development of new construction materials. This interest stems from the combination of my BS in Civil Engineering from Columbia University, five years as a Boeing manufacturing engineer at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, and my current studies as a mechanical engineer.

Additive manufacturing of interlocking glass masonry units

2024 • Journal Paper

We investigated the feasibility of integrating glass 3D printing into the built environment through interlocking glass masonry units. In collaboration with Evenline Co., we developed three novel manufacturing processes for generating interlocking components using combinations of additive manufacturing and casting. This included a process that uses graphite molds for casting features and direct printing with the glass printer. Additional work employed profilometry to estimate stress concentration factors. This research culminated in my master’s thesis at MIT.

All interlocking masonry unit sample assembled together in front of the MIT dome.

Compressive testing of interlocking masonry units at SGH (Waltham, MA)

Casting into previously printed masonry units to make hybrid print-cast (PC) units.

Finished print-cast (PC) unit.

Fully printed (FP) masonry units arrange with bottom in view.

Journal: Glass Structures and Engineering

Contributions:
Concept generation, glass component manufacturing, mechanical testing, profilometry, data analysis, photography, graphite machining, test fixture design and fabrication

Team:
Daniel Massimino, Michael Stern, Ethan Townsend, Kaitlyn Becker

Paper: link
MIT News: link

Acknowledgements: A big thank you to the test and design team at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger for their help with testing. Dan Gilbert from MIT’s LMP also contributed to the work.

