3-D Printing Robots Will Build a Bridge in Amsterdam

A 3-D printer that makes steel structures appear out of thin air will try its hand at building — wait, printing — a pedestrian bridge.

MX3D is a Netherlands-based start-up that researches and develops 3-D printing technologies. Later this year the company is planning its most ambitious project yet: Using 3-D printers to construct a bridge over a canal in the heart of Amsterdam.

Build Me a Bridge

The MX3D team essentially takes everything you know about 3-D printing and turns it on its head. The traditional process would be this: Printers build objects from the bottom up by applying layer after layer of plastic goop from dispenser that shuttles back and forth along a horizontal plane. The end product has telltale layers that sort of resemble a topographic map.

This is not how MX3D printers work. Instead, the MX3D-Metal printer builds structures by ejecting small amounts of molten steel through a welding nozzle at the end of a 6-axis robotic arm — it can craft objects from any angle, rather than simply along a horizontal plane. As molten metal flows through the nozzle, it quickly sets, which allows the printer to produce straight lines, spirals or any other shape for that matter, out of thin air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFF0QQIQDXE