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The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

gizmodo.com

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Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#11

Post by grownseed »

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.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#12

Post by opencl »

grownseed wrote: post #11

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…

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.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#13

Post by eloff »

delecti wrote: post #9
eloff wrote: post #4

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.

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.

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.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#14

Post by jstanley »

delecti wrote: post #9
eloff wrote: post #4

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.

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.

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.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#15

Post by wheelie_boy »

eloff wrote: post #4

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.

An interesting thing that's happening alongside 3d printing is the emergence of visual programming languages specialized for geometry, the most popular being Grasshopper.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#17

Post by mikenew »

grownseed wrote: post #11

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…

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.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#18

Post by function_seven »

mikenew wrote: post #17
grownseed wrote: post #11

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…

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 m…

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?

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#19

Post by matte_black »

delecti wrote: post #9
eloff wrote: post #4

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.

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.

You could sample the projects in VR to get a feel for them.

Re: The First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge

#20

Post by mdorazio »

mikenew wrote: post #17
grownseed wrote: post #11

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…

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 m…

I want to offer additional context for other people who read this and may not be familiar with how 3D printers work. The core components of a 3D printer are not currently printable. These components are: power supply, control board, steppers, rails, bearings, belts, hotend, and the bed. When people talk about printing parts for their printer, they are almost always referring to the secondary parts like the carriage assembly, extruder gears, fan shrouds, and frame components that can be made from a large variety of cheap materials (acrylic, MDF, ABS, etc.). We are a very long way from a printer being able to actually replicate itself.

Source: own and operate 50 3D printers

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