The Marriott Hotel in Cranberry, Pa., was a sizeable construction project for the town of 28,000. Standing five stories high, the front entryway is entirely composed of brick and mortar; a costly upgrade. Designers were unsure of just how realistic it would be to fit the face into their budget.
Enter Construction Robotics’ SAM, the brainchild of a former architect and an engineer, capable of laying brick two to four times faster than an experienced mason. SAM-short for Semi-automated Mason 100- is a robot that applies mortar to brick and then places it at a rate of 350 per hour. By utilizing Construction Robot’s SAM, buildings like the Marriott were able to afford expensive masonry upgrades.
“Masonry is coming back. We have seen huge growth in demand. In a lot of markets that demand outstrips the number of skilled masons available. The biggest reason contractors have come to us is that they are just unable to find the labor to complete these big projects. The robot is one way to scale up really quickly,” says Construction Robotics President Scott Peters.
The self-contained unit is propane-powered and operates on a track moving left to right. A laser guide sight works as SAM’s eyes telling it where to place the next brick. Along with his guidance system, contractors program a specialized wall mount software that creates a 3D map of the brick wall to be constructed, leaving masons free to work ahead.
“The entire time SAM is picking bricks, the masons are working. They are making adjustments to the machine and managing wall quality. Crews are laying lentils, flashing, and wall ties. There is no doubt that there is plenty of work to do. Our robot is only really good at one task, so our goal is to use the crew to do all of those other things in parallel to SAM,” Peters said.
This ability to work in tandem has allowed Peters and his company to make some lofty claims. According to Peters, on most jobsites SAM is able to complete a job five times faster without reducing labor. However, the claim has done little to ease masons’ fears that they are the latest trade to be phased out by technology.
But Peters believes otherwise.
“As with any technology the job description will probably change for masons,” he says.. Thirty years from now the responsibilities and skills sets will be different. A construction site as we know it will change. That doesn’t mean we will see a fully automated jobsite in the near future. There will still be jobs onsite for a long time to come, there might even be more. The responsibilities will just be different. We need our crews making those decisions to bring all the pieces together,” Peters.
In a field that has had a major labor shortage for the past decade, Peters sees SAM as a problem solver not a replacement. SAM’s implementation into masonry has brought interest from a younger audience in an aging industry.
“I talk to contractors every day who say ‘If I had 10, 20, 50 more guys I could put them to work in a heartbeat.’ By leveraging this new technology we will see a lot of young people get excited to work in this new industry,” Peters says.
As for older masons concerned about losing their jobs, Peters said SAM increases the career length of the average mason.
“Masons later in their career might some experience injuries inhibiting them from working the way they used to. By working with a robot there is a different dynamic to the work environment. They are now able to lay out the wall and manage wall quality, decreasing the physical demand on their bodies,” Peters said.
SAM has also received support from unions. The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, headquartered in Washington D.C., voiced their support despite concerns.
“We are supportive of all research and technology that advances the masonry industry.
It has a potential to take jobs from masons, but you can’t live in the past and prevent advances,” IUBAC Spokesman Brian Kennedy said.
Wall quality will also see an upgrade as more masonry firms roll out SAM technology. With a greater focus on oversight, masons won’t be rushed to meet deadlines.
“With SAM, the mason is not all about the number of bricks that they can lay in a day because they are pressured by their contractors. With the robot you can get that high quantity and use the mason to get the quality. It’s a very consistent product,” Peters said.
That robotic efficiency won’t come at the cost of aesthetics, according to Peters, who believes “masons still own the final product.”
“When we compare man-laid walls versus SAM-laid walls, they are indiscernible. It’s no different than two masons laying a wall. The humans are doing the finishing touches to give it the aesthetics you want,” Peters says.
