The strongest glass brick in MIT's research withstood pressure comparable to a concrete block, yet its bottom interlock was made separately. That detail shifts the story from a printable shape to the way a printed body connects, protects its contact surfaces, and enters a second use.
From crushed bottles to layered glass
The team used Evenline's Glass 3D Printer 3 with a furnace. Crushed glass bottles were melted into a printable state, then deposited in layered patterns. The prototype bricks used soda-lime glass commonly found in glassblowing studios.
The printed body had a figure-eight shape that constrains the bricks while allowing walls with some curvature. The researchers demonstrated it by building a curved wall from interlocking bricks.
Interlocks and the interface between bricks
Each brick had two round pegs similar to studs on a toy block. They let neighboring layers interlock into a larger structure. The figure-eight shape enables some wall curvature, while the pegs make the bricks interlock.
A different material was placed between bricks to prevent scratches or cracks at the glass surfaces. It can be removed when the structure is dismantled and recycled, leaving a route to separate the bricks or remelt the glass.
The prototype therefore treats the connection and removable interface alongside the printed body.
Reading the compression result precisely
The researchers compressed bricks in an industrial hydraulic press until fracture began. The strongest bricks withstood pressures comparable to those sustained by concrete blocks.
The qualification matters: the strongest specimens were mostly printed glass, but their bottom interlocking feature was manufactured separately and attached to the brick. The result does not establish that every fully printed glass configuration universally matched concrete.
The results suggest that most of a masonry brick could be printed glass while an interlock could be printed, cast, or made separately. They are investigating whether more of it can be printed glass. Their next goal is progressively larger, self-supporting glass structures.
Reusing a unit and reshaping its material
The project describes two distinct end-of-use paths. An intact brick can be disassembled and reassembled into a new structure. Alternatively, the glass can be returned to the printer process, remelted, and formed into a completely different shape.
The first path preserves the component. The second gives up the old geometry and remelts the glass into a new one. One reuses the masonry unit; the other recycles the material through reshaping.
MIT's study puts connection design beside printable geometry. It connects a printed body, an interlock and a removable interface with compression tests and a proposal for two end-of-use paths.
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