Branch Technology has what it calls the largest free-form 3D printer in the world working away at the company’s modest space in Chattanooga’s small business development center.
But company founder Platt Boyd really gets excited when he shows off a wall of photos of “the beautiful things in nature” such as an extreme close-up of shark skin or a satellite shot from space of a river delta.
“What this is is how structure is made in nature,” he says. “We’re at the smallest beginning steps.”
Branch Technology, started just three years ago, uses a technology that it calls cellular fabrication. Its plan is to bring prefabricated products to the construction industry whereby the pieces can be made at a plant and then shipped to a work site where they’re assembled like Legos, Boyd says.
“It’s much more efficient,” he says, noting that studies show it’s 97 percent more so and that it can sharply reduce building costs.