While I was out on holiday, I received a newsletter from MX3D that I thought worth sharing here, too. It highlighted the fact that a year (actually 13 months, by this point) has already passed since the MX3D Bridge was installed in downtown Amsterdam. How time flies!
The MX3D team put together this really nice video that shows details of the bridge’s design, construction and installation:
Here’s the content of the newsletter article in question, © MX3D:
We’re very happy to celebrate the first anniversary of the installation and public opening of the MX3D Bridge! We are looking back on this massive milestone with pride and joy and want to thank all our partners involved in realizing the first 3D-printed steel bridge in the world.
Since its inception, the MX3D Bridge has been a 'living laboratory". Equipped with a state-of-the-art sensor network, the "Smart Bridge" is powering a cutting-edge research project by academic and industry researchers from the City of Amsterdam. On smartbridgeamsterdam.com you can see the real-time feed from the bridge’s sophisticated sensor network. Structural measurements such as strain, rotation, load, displacement and vibration are fed to the bridge’s ‘‘digital twin’’, allowing researchers to measure the bridge’s health in real-time and to monitor how it changes over its lifespan.
The 12-meter MX3D Bridge is the culmination of several years of work. MX3D kicked off this project in 2015 when it proposed printing a metal bridge with its innovative, large-scale Robotic Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) technology, creating an inspiring example of how digital tools can create a new form of language for architectural objects. The futuristic multi-award-winning bridge was designed by Joris Laarman Lab with Arup as lead engineer.
We invite you all to experience and walk on the MX3D Bridge yourself in the oldest neighbourhood of Amsterdam, at the Oudezijds Achterburgwal 114 in the City of Amsterdam.
Thanks to our Partners: Autodesk, Heijmans, Joris Laarman Lab, ArcelorMittal, Arup, The Alan Turing Institute Data Centric Engineering Programme, Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRQA), Air Liquide, ABB, and Lenovo.
Important contributions have been made by: FORCE Technology, HBM, Oerlikon Lincoln Electric UK, STV Weldingsupplies, MousBV, and Plymovent Group.
The public partners are TU Delft, Imperial College London, University of Twente, Imperial College London, AMS Institute and the City of Amsterdam.
Many congratulations to all at MX3D and their various project partners for this “birthday”! (Especially as the gestation period for this particular baby – given the delays due to COVID, etc. – was much longer than anyone expected. :-)
Here’s a photo from the last time I visited, back in May.
I know that several of this blog’s readers have also taken the opportunity to visit the bridge during visits to the city over the last year. Hopefully many more of you will get there over the coming months. If you do, be sure to share your thoughts!