The Netherlands Has World's First 3D Printed Bridge Jembatan

The Queen of the Netherlands, Maxima, tries out a 3D-printed steel bridge. (photo: MX3D Bridge)

JAKARTA - The first 3D printed steel bridge has opened in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Interestingly, the bridge was made by robotic arms and made of stainless steel weighing 4,500 kilograms. The opening of the bridge was also attended by the Queen of the Netherlands, Maxima.

Compiled from New Scientist, Friday, July 16, the robot is known to use a welding torch to store the bridge structure layer by layer. The 12-meter long MX3D bridge was built by four commercially available industrial robots and took six months to print.

The bridge structure was transported to its site over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in central Amsterdam last week and is now open to the public for pedestrians as well as cyclists to use.

The bridge also features a dozen sensors installed to monitor tension, movement, vibration, and temperature throughout the structure as people pass by and changes in the weather. This data will be entered into the digital bridge model.

Engineers will use this model to study unique material properties and will use machine learning to spot any trends in the data that could indicate a need for maintenance or modification. They also hope it will help designers understand how 3D-printed steel can be used for larger and more complex building projects.

Mark Girolami from the University of Cambridge, who worked on digital models with a team at the Alan Turing Institute in London, said investigations into bridge failures often reveal missed damage.

"Constant data feedback may be able to prevent this failure by providing early warning", said Girolami.

Girolami said that early indications for the strength of the 3D-printed steel were positive. “One of the things we found was that the strength characteristics depended on the orientation of the printing. But what's kind of surprising is that the base strength is what you'd expect from freshly rolled steel, and it actually improves in several directions".