Since introducing its first 3D-printed house at the SXSW festival in Austin in 2018, Texas-based Icon has become a leader in creating 3D-printed structures. Using its Vulcan 3D construction printer, it has now built over 130 homes across the US and Mexico and has plans to build the world's largest 3D-printed neighborhood in its home state. It has also been part of a NASA project to build a model habitat for Mars and is working on the development of 3D-printed Moon-based structures including landing pads, roads, and habitats as part of Project Olympus.

Now the company has taken another leap forward in the 3D construction printing world with the release of its Phoenix printer. The Icon team says it wanted to make a 3D printer that was easier to set up and move from site to site, one that could reduce the number of required operators, and one that could get bigger jobs done faster. The result is Phoenix, a 3D printer that consists of a large free-moving articulated arm on a rotating base, which is quite a bit different from the company's previous Vulcan printer, which is locked into a pillar and cross-beam structure.

One of the main challenges in designing a 3D construction printer with a head attached at the end of a swinging arm was creating the accuracy needed to build livable structures. Icon was able to develop a stabilization system that could prevent the extruding nozzle at the end of the arm from swaying from its own movements or winds from the environment. This new system is not only more mobile, but it can now handle the printing of larger structures like Phoenix House as well as those with multiple stories.