Construction

Weber Beamix buys concrete 3D printing factory, ‘Striatus’ built in Venice

Weber Beamixhas announced that it is buying out fellow construction firmBAMto take full control of the companies’ joint concrete 3D printing factory in Eindhoven.

Since opening in 2019, the complex has become a Dutch AM innovation hub, where designers and state provinces alike have come to create optimized infrastructure and architectural elements. By acquiring BAM’s shares, Weber Beamix aims to streamline the facility’s operations, and it believes that independence will allow it to better draw the attention of the Netherlands to concrete 3D printing’s potential.

Weber Beamix's concrete 3D printing factory. Photo via Weber Beamix.
Weber Beamix’s concrete 3D printing factory. Photo via Weber Beamix.

Weber Beamix’s concrete ambitions

Both well-established building firms in their own right, Weber Beamix and BAM have collaborated for at least four years, since they first 3D printed a concrete bridge in Nijmegen. Following their initial success, the companies opted to open a co-owned industrial-scale additive manufacturing facility in 2019, which BAM claimed at the time would “end the technology’s experimental stage” in construction.

The indoor factory, which houses robotic arm-mounted 3D printers, enables the creation of formwork as well as other large-scale architectural elements, and its facilities were recently deployed by Weber Beamix, theEindhoven University of Technology,Van Wijnen,Vesteda,Witteveen+Bosand the city of Eindhoven, as part of a wider Dutch home-building project earlier this year.

BAM and Weber Beamix are also leveraging the factory’s machinery to create the world’s longest3D printed concrete pedestrian bridge。尽管目前的结构of being built in Nijmegen, the bridge itself was additive manufactured in Eindhoven, at the companies’ now-previously co-owned complex.

Following Weber Beamix’s mutually-agreed buy-out, BAM has indicated that it’ll continue to acquire access to the facilities when this “adds value for its customers.” Weber Beamix, meanwhile, has acknowledged BAM’s role in introducing 3D printing “as a construction method in the Netherlands and abroad,” and stated its intention to intensify its related development and production activities.

Having taken full control of the concrete 3D printing factory, Weber Beamix has also committed to focus on sustainability, industrialization and digitization moving forwards, as it seeks to address the construction market independently, and pitch its large-scale manufacturing capabilities to other local provincial authorities.

The final design for the bridge. Image via The Bridge Project.
韦伯Beamix和英航的最终设计M’s 3D printed bridge in Nijmegen. Image via The Bridge Project.

Novel Venetian 3D printed architecture

Switching from Northern to Southern Europe, a collaborative team fromETH Zurich,Zaha Hadid Architects,incremental3DandLafargeHolcim, are currently 3D printing a novel arched bridge in Italy. Nicknamed ‘Striatus,’ meaning ‘grooved’ or ‘striped,’ the structure is being built at the Giardini della Marinaressa gardens, for display during Venice’s Architecture Biennale 2021.

It’s likely that the bridge has been named after its ridged surface texture, but little has been made public about the technology behind its construction. For its part, LafargeHolcim has said that the structure is set to support itself without reinforcement, standing only thanks to compression forces, effectively “establishing a new language” for concrete construction.

By combining masonry with advanced technologies such as computational design and robotic manufacturing, the firm also says that the bridge will only use materials where needed, reducing its wider footprint. Similarly, given that the team are assembling their design without using binders, unused concrete can be continually repurposed, allowing them to build more complex architecture less wastefully.

Once finished, the bridge will reportedly measure 1600 meters in length and weigh up to 1000 kilograms, taking a total of 140 hours to complete, with the final product set to be exhibited as part of the “Time Space Existence” exhibition hosted by theEuropean Cultural Centre(ECC) from 2 May 2021 to 21 November 2021.

A conceptual rendering of the Striatus bridge being 3D printed in Venice.
A conceptual rendering of the Striatus bridge being 3D printed in Venice. Image via LafargeHolcim.

Building bigger and better bridges

As construction 3D printing technologies continue to advance, bridge-building architects and firms are becoming ever bolder and more ambitious with the complexity of their designs. Large-scale 3D printing firmXtreeE, for instance, has been contracted to create a lavish40-meter pedestrian footbridgein Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Similarly, Dutch engineering consultancy firmRoyal HaskoningDHVhas continually worked with materials producerDSMto push the boundaries of additive manufactured infrastructure in recent years. The firms worked withCEADto design anultra-lightweight fiber-reinforced bridgeback in 2019, before3D printing a sustainable footbridgein Rotterdam using recyclable source materials in July 2020.

Holland has become a somewhat of a hotspot for construction 3D printing companies, asVerticohas also been highly-active in this area over the last few years. The firm has previously worked with theUniversity of Ghent, to additive manufacture amaterial-efficient footbridge, using 60% less concrete than conventional construction technologies would have required.

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Featured image shows Weber Beamix’s concrete 3D printing factory. Photo via Weber Beamix.