The applications for MX3D's printing technique are as expansive as one's imagination. Already, a handful of the firm's 3D-printed sculptures are being exhibited in museums across the world.
Building a bridge is no small feat, and the construction of these man-made crossings has plagued engineers since ancient times. Early bridges were likely rudimentary structures consisting of wooden logs and dirt, before stone, and later steel, became the preferred building materials, favored for their durability and strength.
Every bridge — no matter how rudimentary its materials — must balance the same physical forces: tension and compression. The former is an outward pulling force, the latter an inward pushing force. These forces channel their loads onto a series of supports in the middle and on each side of the structure, ensuring the weight of the structure and that which it carries is evenly dispersed across the plane. Despite their ubiquity, bridges are deft feats of engineering, and the smallest miscalculation could mean a catastrophic collapse.
Yet for MX3D, a bridge it had to be.
In the fall of 2018, after six months of printing and years of development, the MX3D bridge — a gorgeous mass of 12.5-meters of undulating stainless steel — was finally complete. Due to environmental and permitting restraints, the company constructed the bridge inside its laboratory, from where it will be eventually transported by low boat to its permanent home along the Oudezijds Achterburgwal, a famous canal in Amsterdam’s historic city center.
The 3D printing tool is controlled by advanced software that computes massive quantities of data. For this, MX3D turned to Lenovo’s workstation solutions, specifically the ThinkStation P910, which has the performance edge to efficiently process incredible amounts of information, all while running topology optimization applications such as Autodesk Fusion 360.
“The workstations are really important for us to be able to run our software and to be able to calculate the intricate shapes of the bridge,” Guertjens says.
For on-the-fly modifications, MX3D engineers and designers rely on the ThinkPad P40 Yoga to sketch alterations — and to implement them with ease and speed. This is important when one is attempting to manufacture something as massive and complicated as a bridge.
The work hardly stops there. Once the bridge is installed, MX3D will get to work on creating a “smarter bridge.” A series of sensors lining the structure will monitor everything from structural measurements, like strain and vibration, to environmental data, such as air quality and temperature. Using a Lenovo ThinkStation, engineers will be able to measure the bridge’s stats in real-time and track how the structure changes with age. Eventually, the bridge will “learn” to comprehend factors such as how many pedestrians are crossing it and how fast.
This data will be used to create a “digital twin” of the bridge that will reflect its performance and behavior live, and allow engineers to test various modifications that will inform future designs. Geurtjen says the “smarter bridge” will be the equivalent of “a living laboratory.” After all, it’s the future MX3D is chasing, and the stylish footbridge is just the start for the firm’s 3D printing endeavors.
The 3D-printed bridge — a tantalizing synthesis of traditional design sensibility and 21st century technology — is just the start for MX3D. The impressive walkway “proves large-scale 3D printing can be done with sustainable materials and freedom of form,” MX3D cofounder Joris Laarman has said. The bridge, he says, is a “beautiful metaphor,” representing a meeting of old and new “in a way that brings out the best of both worlds.”
Explore Lenovo Technology
Lenovo Workstations
Lenovo PCs & Tablets
Lenovo Small Business Solutions
Additional Stories
