6 ms·

The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

131 points by odabaxok 8y ago

pasta 8y ago
At first I was a little shocked it took 6 months to print (weld if you like). But thinking about it, it doesn't seem that long for such a complicated design. Great work!
- yetihehe 8y ago
  It doesn't matter if it's complicated. Probably they can't do it faster because they have to melt so much steel.
LifeLiverTransp 8y ago
Such beauty, such aery reduction to the basics...
eloff 8y ago
Just beautiful. The ability of 3D printing, not just to automate a traditional construction process, but to enable radically different designs is going to create a whole new style of architecture. Many of the old constraints don't apply and the human imagination is given a freer reign. There's still that pesky law of gravity that must be respected, but otherwise this offers a remarkable freedom.
- delecti 8y ago
  I suspect that the time and cost involved in non-trivial structures will limit any real experimentation with non-traditional designs. It might be trivial to throw away a kilogram of plastic on a failed prototype, but the same doesn't extrapolate up to experiments with bridges.
  - eloff 8y ago
    But that's just the thing, you aren't limited so much by time and cost. The time is proportional to the size of what you're printing, and the cost to the amount of materials and time involved. None of which says much about what the design must look like. You design it on the computer, look at in 3D on the screen as much as you like, and print a scaled model, if you must. You don't need to print up a full-scale prototype anymore than you would do that with a traditional design and construction technique.
  - jstanley 8y ago
    I assume the printing of this bridge didn't go smoothly in one pass, but one advantage of larger-scale metal printing is if something goes wrong you can grind off the failure, reposition the print head (extruder? welder???), and try again. I suppose you could do that with FDM as well, but the precision required for smaller prints is much greater.
  - matte_black 8y ago
    You could sample the projects in VR to get a feel for them.
    - adkaplan 8y ago
      It seems MX3D had the same thought judging from their demo video
- wheelie_boy 8y ago
  An interesting thing that's happening alongside 3d printing is the emergence of visual programming languages specialized for geometry, the most popular being Grasshopper.
  - hathawsh 8y ago
    This is the first time I've heard of Grasshopper. Are you referring to this? http://www.grasshopper3d.com/ http://www.grasshopper3d.com/ How would you recommend a 3D printer operator could learn more about Grasshopper? Are the tutorials good?
    - adkaplan 8y ago
      Check out the grasshopper primer. I haven't read it in a while but I used to claim it was written by programmers for non-programmers. Great getting-started guide. Rhino probably still has a demo available, too. Dynamobim.org is another option if you want to try visual programming without an investment. Dynamo is mostly visible for it's connections to other software, e.g., Revit, but can stand alone as in sandbox mode. EDIT:Yes, it's that grasshopper https://www.rhino3d.com/6/new/grasshopper https://www.rhino3d.com/6/new/grasshopper for a demo reel
  - opencl 8y ago
    Is it really the most popular? It's a plugin for a $1000 CAD program which seems to dramatically limit who can use it.
    - noen 8y ago
      Rhino is the cheapest professional CAD tool on the market by an immense margin. Compared to Solidworks, Inventor, Studio Tools, Catia or any other package, a grand is a steal. And compared to the horrific productivity of "free" cad packages, you will quickly recoup that cost. (aka Fusion360/TinkerCAD , SCAD)
      - jacquesm 8y ago
jstanley 8y ago
I recommend the video, it includes some footage of the printing process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STAHy6hTP14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STAHy6hTP14 Unlike traditional 3d metal printing, which works by laying down a powder which is then baked in an oven to fully sinter it, this bridge seems to be constructed by directly welding additional metal to the existing structure. Here's a fun DIY attempt at the same kind of idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXniBbgbw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXniBbgbw0 (and, if you're into home machining, almost all of the other videos on his channel are very enjoyable too).
- joshu 8y ago
  I knew this was gonna be Tony before I even clicked.
karmicthreat 8y ago
What was the new type of steel they used?
- jstanley 8y ago
  I took that to mean that it is not hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, cast iron, or any other traditional method of converting a lump of iron ore into a usable piece of steel. It's 1000 km of welding wire welded together. It counts as a new "type" of steel depending on how flexible you are with what counts as different "types".
  - karmicthreat 8y ago
    That is a good point though. Since its just mig wire you could change out the wire at various points to change the properties of the steel.
    - jstanley 8y ago
      You could use a combination of stainless and mild steel to write some text on the surface of the bridge. The surface of the mild steel would rust and the stainless wouldn't!
opencl 8y ago
The article is light on technical details but they apparently converted a normal industrial welding robot into a giant FDM machine that deposits 1-3 KG per hour per nozzle. Really interesting. From the photos it looks like the layers don't even have to be parallel to each other.
grownseed 8y ago
Commenting on this while my 3D printer is making parts for my new 3D printer, with parts I designed from the comfort of my own home. 3D printing and the RepRap movement have managed to get me truly excited about something for the first time since I took up programming 20 something years ago. We're not quite at the fully consumer-ready stage yet, there is a lot of tinkering and know-how that would be too much for the average consumer. I'd say the current state of 3D printing is at the same level 2D printing was ~40 years ago (comparatively), but I'm confident we'll reach a similar stage within the next few years. For those interested, the RepRap community is extremely active and there are lots of open-source projects (including hardware) to get involved with.
- opencl 8y ago
  I'm also really excited that SLA prices have absolutely plummeted in the last year or so as well. The level of quality you can get from a ~$500 machine now is stunning, but of course it comes with its own set of problems so it's not going to dethrone FDM anytime soon. I hope we get more open-source SLA development soon though.
- mikenew 8y ago
  Same experience for me. I bought a cheap printer from eBay and slowly started re-designing and replacing existing parts by printing them out on the printer itself. Nearly 100% of the printer has been replaced, and I’m finalizing the design for a second printer. I’ve started making contributions to the firmware, slicers, and host software to get features I want, learned to model in Blender, learned about programming micro-controllers, started researching thermoplastics, material science, and the list goes on. 3D printing is an incredible intersection of software, electronics, machinery, chemistry, and an open, community-driven R&D environment. It is the most fun I’ve had since being a child building RC cars.
  - function_seven 8y ago
    Things I learned from RC cars as a kid: 1. Basic electricity 2. PWM 3. Battery chemistry and care 4. Transmissions/gear ratios 5. How DC motors work. Winds and turns and brushes, etc. 6. Suspension basics 7. Basic RF (crystals and channels and avoiding interference) 8. Soldering And all sorts of hard-to-list mechanics and know-how. I didn't realize it at the time (and I don't think my parents did, either), but I learned so much more from that hobby than I did in school, for those areas. 3D printing feels the same way. I only recently got the Monoprice 120mm^2 unit, and it's working great for what I've thrown at it so far. What are you using for all the non-plastic parts? Do you print slides and bracing as well?
fudged71 8y ago
There was a section of this bridge on display at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. Very heavy :)
jacquesm 8y ago
Wasn't this the first? https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2015/io/the-first-3d-printed-bridge-in-amsterdam-2017/ https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2015/io/the-first-3d-printed-bridg... Ah, it is the same project only a bit delayed and they've redesigned the bridge itself and moved the project indoors during the printing phase (which makes good sense).
skookumchuck 8y ago
While an amazing new technique, I'm a bit disappointed that it was used to create an "art" bridge. As an engineer, I'd be more interested in what a bridge would look like if it was pure utilitarian - the only material on it is what must be on it, not what is required by machining costs and stock material shapes. Before anyone scoffs that this must result in nerdy and ugly shapes, airplanes are beautiful shapes and none of that is for aesthetics or artistic purposes. It's simply the best shape for flying. As manufacturing techniques improve, the airplane shapes get more subtly flowing forms, and get even more beautiful.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  I actually think that the organic look shows off the fact that it was 3D printed in a very original way. If it ended up being a utilitarian 'boring' construction then there would be no point in 3D printing it in the first place. But there is no other way that I'm aware of short of a huge cast (and that's a big if given the hollow spaces) to make this bridge in any other way.
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    > If it ended up being a utilitarian 'boring' construction then there would be no point in 3D printing it in the first place. There's a great deal of point to it - saving money in material and fabrication costs.
    - adkaplan 8y ago
      Something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtYRfMzmWFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtYRfMzmWFU could be a happy medium. Shapes that must be 3d printed but forms that are less fluff and more function.
    - ofrzeta 8y ago
      Having a welding robot run for 6 months straight will hardly reduce fabrication costs. Given the price of MIG welding wire it's also dubious if you could reduce material costs.

131 points by odabaxok 8y ago

At first I was a little shocked it took 6 months to print (weld if you like). But thinking about it, it doesn't seem that long for such a complicated design. Great work!

yetihehe 8y ago
It doesn't matter if it's complicated. Probably they can't do it faster because they have to melt so much steel.

LifeLiverTransp 8y ago

Such beauty, such aery reduction to the basics...

eloff 8y ago

Just beautiful. The ability of 3D printing, not just to automate a traditional construction process, but to enable radically different designs is going to create a whole new style of architecture. Many of the old constraints don't apply and the human imagination is given a freer reign. There's still that pesky law of gravity that must be respected, but otherwise this offers a remarkable freedom.

delecti 8y ago
I suspect that the time and cost involved in non-trivial structures will limit any real experimentation with non-traditional designs. It might be trivial to throw away a kilogram of plastic on a failed prototype, but the same doesn't extrapolate up to experiments with bridges.
- eloff 8y ago
  But that's just the thing, you aren't limited so much by time and cost. The time is proportional to the size of what you're printing, and the cost to the amount of materials and time involved. None of which says much about what the design must look like. You design it on the computer, look at in 3D on the screen as much as you like, and print a scaled model, if you must. You don't need to print up a full-scale prototype anymore than you would do that with a traditional design and construction technique.
- jstanley 8y ago
  I assume the printing of this bridge didn't go smoothly in one pass, but one advantage of larger-scale metal printing is if something goes wrong you can grind off the failure, reposition the print head (extruder? welder???), and try again. I suppose you could do that with FDM as well, but the precision required for smaller prints is much greater.
- matte_black 8y ago
  You could sample the projects in VR to get a feel for them.
  - adkaplan 8y ago
    It seems MX3D had the same thought judging from their demo video
wheelie_boy 8y ago
An interesting thing that's happening alongside 3d printing is the emergence of visual programming languages specialized for geometry, the most popular being Grasshopper.
- hathawsh 8y ago
  This is the first time I've heard of Grasshopper. Are you referring to this? http://www.grasshopper3d.com/ http://www.grasshopper3d.com/ How would you recommend a 3D printer operator could learn more about Grasshopper? Are the tutorials good?
  - adkaplan 8y ago
    Check out the grasshopper primer. I haven't read it in a while but I used to claim it was written by programmers for non-programmers. Great getting-started guide. Rhino probably still has a demo available, too. Dynamobim.org is another option if you want to try visual programming without an investment. Dynamo is mostly visible for it's connections to other software, e.g., Revit, but can stand alone as in sandbox mode. EDIT:Yes, it's that grasshopper https://www.rhino3d.com/6/new/grasshopper https://www.rhino3d.com/6/new/grasshopper for a demo reel
- opencl 8y ago
  Is it really the most popular? It's a plugin for a $1000 CAD program which seems to dramatically limit who can use it.
  - noen 8y ago
    Rhino is the cheapest professional CAD tool on the market by an immense margin. Compared to Solidworks, Inventor, Studio Tools, Catia or any other package, a grand is a steal. And compared to the horrific productivity of "free" cad packages, you will quickly recoup that cost. (aka Fusion360/TinkerCAD , SCAD)
    - jacquesm 8y ago

jstanley 8y ago

I recommend the video, it includes some footage of the printing process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STAHy6hTP14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STAHy6hTP14 Unlike traditional 3d metal printing, which works by laying down a powder which is then baked in an oven to fully sinter it, this bridge seems to be constructed by directly welding additional metal to the existing structure. Here's a fun DIY attempt at the same kind of idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXniBbgbw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXniBbgbw0 (and, if you're into home machining, almost all of the other videos on his channel are very enjoyable too).

joshu 8y ago
I knew this was gonna be Tony before I even clicked.

karmicthreat 8y ago

What was the new type of steel they used?

jstanley 8y ago
I took that to mean that it is not hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, cast iron, or any other traditional method of converting a lump of iron ore into a usable piece of steel. It's 1000 km of welding wire welded together. It counts as a new "type" of steel depending on how flexible you are with what counts as different "types".
- karmicthreat 8y ago
  That is a good point though. Since its just mig wire you could change out the wire at various points to change the properties of the steel.
  - jstanley 8y ago
    You could use a combination of stainless and mild steel to write some text on the surface of the bridge. The surface of the mild steel would rust and the stainless wouldn't!

opencl 8y ago

The article is light on technical details but they apparently converted a normal industrial welding robot into a giant FDM machine that deposits 1-3 KG per hour per nozzle. Really interesting. From the photos it looks like the layers don't even have to be parallel to each other.

grownseed 8y ago

Commenting on this while my 3D printer is making parts for my new 3D printer, with parts I designed from the comfort of my own home. 3D printing and the RepRap movement have managed to get me truly excited about something for the first time since I took up programming 20 something years ago. We're not quite at the fully consumer-ready stage yet, there is a lot of tinkering and know-how that would be too much for the average consumer. I'd say the current state of 3D printing is at the same level 2D printing was ~40 years ago (comparatively), but I'm confident we'll reach a similar stage within the next few years. For those interested, the RepRap community is extremely active and there are lots of open-source projects (including hardware) to get involved with.

opencl 8y ago
I'm also really excited that SLA prices have absolutely plummeted in the last year or so as well. The level of quality you can get from a ~$500 machine now is stunning, but of course it comes with its own set of problems so it's not going to dethrone FDM anytime soon. I hope we get more open-source SLA development soon though.
mikenew 8y ago
Same experience for me. I bought a cheap printer from eBay and slowly started re-designing and replacing existing parts by printing them out on the printer itself. Nearly 100% of the printer has been replaced, and I’m finalizing the design for a second printer. I’ve started making contributions to the firmware, slicers, and host software to get features I want, learned to model in Blender, learned about programming micro-controllers, started researching thermoplastics, material science, and the list goes on. 3D printing is an incredible intersection of software, electronics, machinery, chemistry, and an open, community-driven R&D environment. It is the most fun I’ve had since being a child building RC cars.
- function_seven 8y ago
  Things I learned from RC cars as a kid: 1. Basic electricity 2. PWM 3. Battery chemistry and care 4. Transmissions/gear ratios 5. How DC motors work. Winds and turns and brushes, etc. 6. Suspension basics 7. Basic RF (crystals and channels and avoiding interference) 8. Soldering And all sorts of hard-to-list mechanics and know-how. I didn't realize it at the time (and I don't think my parents did, either), but I learned so much more from that hobby than I did in school, for those areas. 3D printing feels the same way. I only recently got the Monoprice 120mm^2 unit, and it's working great for what I've thrown at it so far. What are you using for all the non-plastic parts? Do you print slides and bracing as well?

fudged71 8y ago

There was a section of this bridge on display at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. Very heavy :)

jacquesm 8y ago

Wasn't this the first? https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2015/io/the-first-3d-printed-bridge-in-amsterdam-2017/ https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2015/io/the-first-3d-printed-bridg... Ah, it is the same project only a bit delayed and they've redesigned the bridge itself and moved the project indoors during the printing phase (which makes good sense).

skookumchuck 8y ago

While an amazing new technique, I'm a bit disappointed that it was used to create an "art" bridge. As an engineer, I'd be more interested in what a bridge would look like if it was pure utilitarian - the only material on it is what must be on it, not what is required by machining costs and stock material shapes. Before anyone scoffs that this must result in nerdy and ugly shapes, airplanes are beautiful shapes and none of that is for aesthetics or artistic purposes. It's simply the best shape for flying. As manufacturing techniques improve, the airplane shapes get more subtly flowing forms, and get even more beautiful.

jacquesm 8y ago
I actually think that the organic look shows off the fact that it was 3D printed in a very original way. If it ended up being a utilitarian 'boring' construction then there would be no point in 3D printing it in the first place. But there is no other way that I'm aware of short of a huge cast (and that's a big if given the hollow spaces) to make this bridge in any other way.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  > If it ended up being a utilitarian 'boring' construction then there would be no point in 3D printing it in the first place. There's a great deal of point to it - saving money in material and fabrication costs.
  - adkaplan 8y ago
    Something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtYRfMzmWFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtYRfMzmWFU could be a happy medium. Shapes that must be 3d printed but forms that are less fluff and more function.
  - ofrzeta 8y ago
    Having a welding robot run for 6 months straight will hardly reduce fabrication costs. Given the price of MIG welding wire it's also dubious if you could reduce material costs.