3D technology has always been the goal of intelligent development. Many people think that the future society will be a 3D printing society. We will go shopping on our own 3D printing car, live in a 3D printed house, and use 3D printed furniture. However, the ideal is full, but the reality is the bone. Due to the immature technical experience, the ideal is still not realized, but there are still companies that are insisting on developing this technology.
Two years ago, MX3D announced a plan to build a steel bridge designed by Joris Laarman using 3D printing technology. The project is progressing well and is expected to be completed in the next few years. In this regard, the company and its main investor, Autodesk, shared their progress with us exclusively. The development of technology and the progress of the project are very amazing. Numerous problems have been overcome in this process, and the future is worth looking forward to.
The perfect case for industrial applicationsThis bridge is undoubtedly a proof of concept for a range of steel printing applications, from shipbuilding to offshore oil rigs. Achieving this goal requires not only better software, but also a robot that can learn 3D printing on its own. "We are about to make a major breakthrough in the size of printable objects, which will bring leap to the development of 3D printing applications," said JI3D manager Gijs van der Velden. MX3D is a startup dedicated to commercializing large-scale steel printing, stripped from Joris Laarman Lab.
When Laarman first designed the bridge, the bridge was supported by lattice-like columns like ice crystals. The bridge is located on a canal near Amsterdam's historic red light district. But for a simple reason, the bridge has undergone a fundamental change: the city's discovery of the bridge design will put tremendous pressure on the canal's riverbed, so it must be re-engineered. Bridges that are now being printed are more like a typical pedestrian structure, but the bridge deck and shape still retain the original singular curvature and distortion - and this design can only be done in 3D printing. More importantly, it shows the possibilities of 3D printing technology to all potential partners.
However, one of the challenges encountered during printing is to print large shapes. You might think this is a hardware problem - it can be solved with a better performing machine - but in reality it's more of a software problem. Off-the-shelf industrial robots have always been the protagonists, and customers can easily book these robots, receive them in about 3 weeks, and then use the MX3D software to print whatever they want. But getting these robots to solder all the physical properties required for high-performance components becomes very complicated.
The physical properties of iron change after melting. Repeated heating will make the iron brittle, meaning you can't simply print the steel structure layer by layer like plastic. As the layers of steel continue to stack, they repeatedly heat the steel below. If these steel layers have just been printed recently, they will become more vulnerable. Overcoming this difficulty means using a completely different print side column. The steel has to be built in the already cooled area, and the prints appear to be random patterns due to the different areas. The robot used to 3D print steel doesn't look like a spider web – it's more like a spider that licks the medicine. Because the printer no longer has to wait for the steel to cool at a particular location, the printer itself can double its productivity.
But the next thing is more complicated. Complex 3D geometry is customized by definition, so it's difficult to know in advance where the machine will be in trouble when creating a strong weld. But machine learning can solve this problem. The industrial robots used in the MX3D already have sensors that detect the current value used to heat the steel, the temperature of the steel, and the exact location of the weld. MX3D is working on the next phase: combining this data with machine learning algorithms to help robots learn which welds are likely to cause problems – and choose to either solve them in real time or adopt a new mobile model to completely avoid these problems and re-reasonably Build each layer structure. “When you're making a print file, you can solve the obvious problem,†van der Velden explains. “But when it's actually printed, the machine will identify the problem and create a solution on the fly.â€
Van der Velden also acknowledged that 3D printed steel will not be suitable for 95% of industrial construction projects. In these projects, the structure of steel is very simple, eliminating the need for 3D printing technology. However, the remaining 5% of the projects means a huge market. For example, the design of the steel support structure of offshore oil rigs is extremely complicated and difficult. Rather than having each engineering team build each separate part, you can hire two engineers to supervise eight machines. In addition, one of the most time-consuming steps in manufacturing components for large projects such as oil drilling platforms is to cut critical components to minimize weight. Reducing the weight from 6000 kg to 5000 kg means that you can install it with completely different types of lifting equipment, which significantly reduces costs. 3D printing of these key components minimizes the weight of the complex internal structure – up to 50% less weight, without the need for additional finishing work. Large high-performance parts (such as the rotor on a freight ship) can also use 3D printing, the same is true. A design that looks the same on the surface but is actually optimized inside can bring great advantages.
Let us return to the bridge again. This project is sponsored by Autodesk and MX3D is responsible for developing its software. And more than a dozen partners have invested millions of dollars in developing this technology. Although the exterior of the bridge looks very cool, its real purpose is to show us the innovative possibilities of large internal structures that have not changed for decades. “This is not a magical way to make everything,†van der Velden said. “But we will find important new parts that really apply to 3D printing.â€
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