Fancy 3D-printed steering wheels and body panels? That’s nice. Over in Amsterdam, entire pieces of infrastructure are now being manufactured using the technology.
The city recently unveiled a brand-new “smart 3D-printed” pedestrian bridge called the MX3D Bridge that crosses over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal, one of its oldest and most popular canals.
Made of stainless steel and spanning a length of over 39 feet, the structure was designed by Joris Laarman Lab and built by MX3D. Also contributing to the project were the Alan Turing Institute and the Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.
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MX3D began work on the bridge way back in 2015, constructing it layer by layer using welding robots. It passed its final testing phase in 2019 and is now sitting pretty and completely functional inside one of the most pedestrian-friendly cities on the planet.
On its website, the company says the MX3D Bridge is a showcase for future applications of 3D printing technology.
“We equip typical industrial robots with purpose-built tools and develop the software to control them. The unique approach allows us to 3D print strong, complex and graceful structures out of metal,” it said.
“The goal of the MX3D Bridge project is to showcase the potential applications of our multi-axis 3D printing technology.”
This is incredibly impressive stuff. Think we’ll see 3D-printed pedestrian overpasses or flyovers anytime soon? Hey, one can dream, right?
3D-printed pedestrian bridge
