Meet the largest 3D printed bridge in the world

If 3D printing has even reached home designs on Mars, it is more than acceptable for a bridge to be printed as well. But we are not talking about either; This is the largest 3D printed bridge in the world. It is located in China and is 26.3 meters long and 2.6 meters high. Professor Xu Weiguo and his team at Tsinghua University have turned this incredible invention into a true historical reference.

Its creation was inspired by the Zhaozhou Bridge, the oldest in the country, created in 605 AD. While it took more than a decade to take shape, the current Chinese bridge took just 18 days for all of its components to be printed on concrete. In addition, in a press statement, Professor Weiguo said the bridge cost only two-thirds of the cost of the old Zhaozhou construction.

The Chinese bridge has real-time monitoring, which allows it to detect the voltage suffered very accurately to avoid possible accidents. Tsinghua press has stated that the workforce for buildings like this will be increasingly scarce as 3D printing technology develops further. Professor Weiguo and his team also had the help of two robots in the construction. While one was responsible for the printing and the bridge monitoring system, the other did the hard work of handling the pieces and joining them together.

Before the bridge was built, a 1: 4 scale prototype was made. The test went smoothly, so the team felt confident to get their hands dirty and finally take the idea to the street. Despite its success, there are many outstanding points to be worked on in this area, mainly because 3D printing is not yet so popular in civil engineering. However, with the current advancement of this technology, its use is expected to become increasingly increasing.