近年来，3D打印技术的持续创新与进步使其在建筑行业的应用日益广泛。与传统的木质或钢质建筑模板相比，3D打印模板只需将设计方案输入3D打印软件，就能生产出最终的模板或造型。这种高效性和可持续性，正是3D打印模板在建筑领域的显著优势之一。
PolyCore™ ABS-5012是一种PolyCore™颗粒材料，被选为定制混凝土墙体模具的打印材料。这种高性价比的ABS复合材料含有20%的玻璃纤维，非常适合在低温环境（室温至80℃）下使用的3D打印模具和工具。借助这种材料进行模具打印，并利用3D打印技术的大尺寸和高精度优势，我们为Polymaker打造了一面5米（长）×0.4米（宽）×2米（高）的品牌墙。
本文将详细介绍使用PolyCore™ ABS-5012建造这面墙体的分步流程。
首先，设计师突破了传统模具的设计限制，创造出多面图案，并融入了Polymaker的标志，充分发挥了3D打印技术带来的创作自由度。
接下来是模具的打印与加工阶段，总共耗时16小时。打印完成后，全尺寸的模具被切割成四部分，其内表面经过额外的后处理，以确保混凝土浇筑后能呈现光滑的表面效果。
随后，模具组件通过螺栓进行组装，同时搭建外部支撑结构，为混凝土的稳定浇筑提供保障。
最后进入混凝土浇筑与脱模阶段。这一阶段包括在3D打印模具内部构建钢筋网结构、浇筑C30混凝土、自然风干，然后脱模并对结构进行上色。
最终完成的品牌墙带有Polymaker标志，并荣获 2024年TCT亚洲展 “最佳应用奖——最佳工业案例”。
通过创新研发，Polymaker不断提升其材料（尤其是颗粒材料）在建筑应用中的稳定性和耐久性。这有助于在制造过程中实现更高水平的设计自由度、更短的交付周期、更低的生产成本，以及更小的碳足迹。
预计在不久的将来，3D打印建筑将成为推动建筑行业发展的关键动力，通过这种新型增材制造方式实现非凡的设计，全方位促进创新。
2024年5月6日，上海—— 近日，Polymaker荣获 2024年TCT亚洲展“最佳应用奖——最佳工业案例”， 凭借其 PolyCore™系列产品在3D打印建筑模版领域的优秀表现。这一荣誉不仅是对Polymaker在创新和卓越方面的认可，也是对其在3D打印行业中持续领导地位的肯定。
随着3D打印技术的不断创新和进步，这一技术被逐渐应用于建筑行业。此次获奖案例正是Polymaker在建筑领域的深耕之作：利用3D打印的高精度和大尺寸优势，Polymaker选用旗下 PolyCore™ 系列材料，浇筑制作完成了Polymaker（及苏州聚复科技股份有限公司）长达5米，宽0.4米，总高2米的品牌墙。
墙体从飘落的雪花中汲取设计灵感，打造凹凸立体的造型；上海建工集团下属上海市机械施工集团有限公司为更好铸造这一项目，还与上海酷鹰科技有限公司联合研发出一体化打印装备，并将其充分应用于品牌墙的打印工作之中 ，彰显了3D打印将创意想象付诸实践的实力，为建筑行业注入了智能制造的新活力。
这一墙体的建成意义重大。上海市机械施工集团有限公司方面表示：“超大幅面异形混凝土模板3D打印技术的应用，依托“十三五”及“十四五”国家项目课题研究成果，将为市政及建筑工程中异形混凝土模板模具的快速、高精度制造带来革命性的变化。与传统模具相比，这一技术有效降低了制造成本与施工周期，推动了传统建筑向数字化、工业化、智能化、低碳化的转型。”
正因如此，Polymaker才能在亚洲地区最具影响力的增材制造盛会TCT亚洲展上脱颖而出，赢得“ 最佳应用奖之最佳工业案例奖项, 进一步巩固了Polymaker在建筑领域的地位并丰富了其产品组合。有关此案例的详细信息，请点击“采用PolyCore™打印的建筑模型案例”。
“我们对荣获TCT亚洲展最佳工业案例奖感到非常荣幸。这不仅是对我们团队不懈努力和持续创新的肯定，也为建筑行业的发展带来新启示。Polymaker一直是将3D打印应用于建筑领域的先行者，为包括室内设计和室外建筑在内的建筑行业提供多款粒料产品，并成功打造 上海桃浦公园景观桥、, the 成都流云桥拉卡环岛雕塑等项目。未来，品牌还将继续致力于技术创新和产品优化，为建筑行业带来更多智能制造的可能性，让建筑焕发智能制造之美。”——Polymaker CEO 罗小帆博士
除最佳工业案例奖外，Polymaker还在TCT亚洲展十周年之际获得了十年老友称号。这一荣誉代表了Polymaker与TCT亚洲展的长期合作和密切关系，以及品牌在3D打印行业中的持续贡献。
未来，Polymaker将继续秉承卓越品质和创新精神，不断拓展增材制造领域的边界，为客户和合作伙伴提供卓越的解决方案，最终推动增材制造技术的发展。
Polymaker unveiled the "Liuyun Bridge", a 3D printed polymer bridge built jointly by Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd., Polymaker, and Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd., in Yimahe Park, Longquanyi District, Chengdu in 2021. Inspired by the free-flowing shape of the stagecoach and dancing silk, “Liuyun Bridge” achieves bold innovations in landscape design using new technology and materials unlike ever before while managing to overcome many obstacles in the 3D printing process. Polymaker was largely responsible for the conception and completion of this project, providing the materials and spearheading the exploration of landscape bridge design.
The printing process of "Liuyun Bridge"
Innovating on the printing process, the “Liuyun Bridge” takes advantage of Polymaker’s materials and creatively employs new technology to complete its construction not only quicker, but also with higher quality. The bridge manages to shorten its construction period using the Kuying Tech’s 5-Axis Milling and Additive Manufacturing Integrated Machine (BGAM), which allows for uninterrupted 3D printing to continuously occur at all hours of the day without any manual interaction, finishing the printing of “Liuyun Bridge’s” main components in only thirty-five days.
Polymaker guarantees the bridge’s stability and safety for years to come with their polymer pellets PolyCore™ ASA-3012, a material with excellent anti-aging. Another new method used to improve the printing process, closed-loop printing ensures there are minimal deformations by monitoring the temperature of the material during the printing process. The “Liuyun Bridge” consumes several tons of materials to finally complete its construction by printing segmented components to be assembled on site. Heavily dependent on Polymaker and their materials, “Liuyun Bridge” is a one-of-a-kind landscape bridge that only found its success through Polymaker.
A tremendous feat for 3D printing like the “Liuyun Bridge” never could have been accomplished without the collaboration between Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd., Polymaker, and Shanghai Kuying Co., Ltd. The actual design for the bridge was a product from both Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Polymaker while Shanghai Kuying Co., Ltd. was responsible for the technology that let the material reach its fullest potential, crafting the bridge’s components with few errors and in an extremely short amount of time. However, Polymaker’s PolyCore™ ASA-3012 laid the foundation for this incredible achievement in 3D printing as the material made the design feasible in reality and continues to support its everyday use.
Materials used for “Liuyun Bridge”
The “Liuyun Bridge” used many new methods specific to Polymaker’s material to expand on the bridge’s performance. As the optimal material for the bridge, PolyCore™ ASA-3012 has mechanical properties suited for outdoor use and works specifically for large 3D prints, enhancing their dimensional stability and interlayer adhesion. Currently, most additive manufacturing technologies result in residual stress and warpage when using the fused deposition molding process. However, “Liuyun Bridge” incorporates a multi-factor analysis method, controlling ambient temperature and the three-stage melting of materials with different parameters like temperature, glass transition temperature, and single-layer printing time, to prevent any warping or deformations caused by rapid cooling.
During the printing process, heating the workspace before and after printing strengthens the layer-by-layer adhesion of the 3D printed materials, further reducing any possible problems with the printed components. Allowing the design of “Liuyun Bridge” to be fully realized, the high-precision five-axis CNC processing system of Kuying’s BGAM removes the typical margin of error reserved for printing deformations and heightens the accuracy of segmented printing components. With Polymaker’s PolyCore™ ASA-3012 being so advantageous, it solves many previous printing issues while still bolstering “Liuyun Bridge’s” stability and structure.
“Liuyun Bridge” is not the first bridge to use 3D printing technology though. Polymaker has worked in the construction of a few other 3D printed bridges, both at home and abroad, to realize new breakthroughs and accomplishments on each of their projects.
Polymaker’s 3D printed bridges in China
Shanghai Taopu Central Park Bridge
In 2019, China’s first composite landscape bridge was constructed in Shanghai Taopu Central Park by Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd., Polymaker, and Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd. As the first composite landscape bridge with one-time molding and a multi-dimensional curved surface, the Taopu Central Park Bridge breaks through the shackles of traditional bridge design and frees the landscape bridge to be more flexible and diverse in space. Like with “Liuyun Bridge”, the Taopu Central Park Bridge owes its conception and dynamic shape to Polymaker and their materials.
The printing process of this 3D printed landscape bridge went through nearly one hundred printing tests to be continuously optimized. The super-large gantry 3D printer, jointly developed by Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Kuying Technology Co., Ltd., allows for more diverse printing of larger sizes while still improving the printing’s accuracy. The Taopu Central Park Bridge is also composed of Polymaker's PolyCore™ ASA-3012 material, so the bridge can withstand long-term exposure to the sun and rain.
Quanzhou Bridge
Polymaker installed China’s second 3D printed bridge in the ecological belt of Baiqi Lake in Quanzhou, Fujian in 2019 as the second collaboration between Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd., Polymaker, and Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd. Spanning 17.5 meters, the Quanzhou Bridge also uses Polymaker’s PolyCore™ ASA-3012 material for its body and drastically improves on the manufacturing time of traditional concrete grouting, completing its construction in only five weeks.
With the bridge’s manufacturing saving a considerable amount of time, it continues to compete with traditional grouting by providing strength that can withstand a pressure of two kilonewtons for each square meter, guaranteeing its ability to carry any amount of traffic. The Quanzhou Bridge utilizes a segmented design, unlike the Taopu Central Park Bridge, allowing its segments to be connected through a unique link mechanism to meet necessary mechanical requirements. Together, Polymaker's PolyCore™ ASA-3012 and the BGAM print the different components of the bridge to be assembled and painted for the finished construction, like with the printing process of the “Liuyun Bridge”.
The future of 3D printed bridges
Polymaker plays a role throughout the entire process of their 3D printed landscape bridges, covering many different facets from modeling, construction, and conception to data design. 3D printing technology truly emphasizes the "link of artistic inspiration with the power of science and technology" by pushing both sides to reach a product that stands above expectations. Polymaker’s application of 3D printing technology in landscape design greatly expands opportunities for technological innovation and exploration in the industry.
With 3D printing technology only continuing to grow, it has become an important consideration in constructing footbridges and large-sized printing quicker, with more cost effectiveness, and in a sustainable manner. Large-sized printing solutions are becoming more and more popular in different fields too, and Polymaker wants to fuel their growth by actively developing and producing materials that can bring ambitious projects to reality.
Without the material Polymaker has been creating, 3D printed bridges would never be as developed as they are now because Polymaker’s material not only provides the flexibility to meet any design’s needs, but also the strength to sustain the bridge for many years. Polymaker advances the world of 3D printing in more ways than only with their materials though. Their passion to push the industry and venture into unexplored territory has given 3D printing new capabilities and unimaginable possibilities.
Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd.:
Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in China's construction industry, ranking among the world's top 500 companies. Over the past sixty years, Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. has repeatedly set records in the history of engineering construction in China and even in the world. It has contributed to many excellent projects in more than 100 cities across the country and in more than 30 countries and regions around the world. In recent years, Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. has made every effort to promote national development, strengthen the synergy of the entire industry chain, and continue to form new commanding heights in business areas such as urban renewal, water conservancy, environmental governance, digital industrial construction, and construction services. They are now accelerating construction to become a widely acclaimed service provider for the whole life cycle of construction.
Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd.:
Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development of super-large 3D printing solutions. The company adheres to the concept of "exploring future manufacturing methods" and is based on the innovative model of "integration of addition and reduction of materials, research and development of new materials, and intelligent control" in order to help manufacturing companies reduce costs and improve efficiency. The company’s existing intelligent equipment products include the Tech’s 5-Axis Milling and Additive Manufacturing Intergrated (BGAM), the high-speed pellet printer (SGAM), and the robotic additive manufacturing system (BRAM). These main products are widely used in architectural landscape, aerospace, shipbuilding, rail transit, energy, automobiles, medical products, and many other industries.
As one of the 20 art installations in ‘Design Shanghai 2021’, "Digital Circular Pavilion" is another innovative work of digital artist, Zihan Zhao, founder of the Spazio Z design studio. The sculpture is standing in front of the old Shikumen building in Xintiandi, Shanghai, with branches growing upward, and gradually forming an organic space to escape from the urban style of downtown Shanghai. The white surface finish of the installation contrasts strongly with the dark gray background color of Shikumen, attracting passers-by to explore and connect within.
Primarily focusing on the creation of digital art, 3D printing has become the go-to medium, transitioning digital artwork created in Spazio Z into the physical space. To achieve this, the studio has created several custom built large format 3D printers using FFF technology to create modular parts which can be assembled into a larger structure.
The Digital Circular Pavilion is the latest work to emerge from the studio. Printed in 800kg of Polymaker’s L3003, an industrial PLA filament designed for high volume printing in production, print farms and large projects. The individual sections of the pavilion are bolted together onto an aluminum armature which allows for easy assembly on site. The pavilion sections have been post-processed into one homogenous organic form by coating the printed surfaces in polyester filler and sanding smooth. This coating process helps to strengthen and protect the PLA from UV and heat radiation and provides a clean smooth surface which translates the form of the design, avoiding any textures or layer lines.
During the inspiration for the design, Zhao Zihan had one question in mind: How do we connect the independent and unrelated people in the city? People are invariably disordered and unpredictable. As a designer, all pre-planning is hypothetical. As a space device, how to realize people's exploration in the city block, social and self-satisfaction is generally accidental every time. Therefore, such a device is more of a medium, carrying a variety of space possibilities in order to bring people together.
"Digital Circular Pavilion" is a relatively transparent structure, but it still has the function of isolation. The circular form is a natural separation figure, the outer circle is open for visitors to sit and rest. While the inner circle is semi closed, which provides the possibility for a relatively private conversation. At the beginning of the concept, Zihan drew lines of different thickness, depth and density, reflecting the randomness and disorder of human activities, and then simulated them into topological forms through digital technology.
For this work, Zihan Zhao is more inclined to call it "an artistic landscape product", because the artistic expression of its form is far more than its function.
From sketch to parametric model, Zhao Zihan and his team members made a detailed and in-depth analysis on the physical force, overall load-bearing, structural curvature and other factors of a single module. After detailed analysis it was determined that PLA could be a suitable material when backed with an aluminum armature and coated in polyester filler. While there are materials with better mechanical properties available, the reliability and printability of PLA made this project possible. Spazio Z takes advantage of their own 3D printing factory, which can fully demonstrate the printing efficiency, assembly process, cost control and other aspects of production. This allowed more than three square meters of walls to be produced for load testing prior to final construction. Finally, Spazio Z completed the work at a lower cost than the same type of building using traditional methods.
Through the joint operation of 100 large-scale 3D printers, each module is printed separately in one month, and then assembled into five large module groups, which are transported to the site to complete the final assembly and fixation through aluminum alloy components. At the end of the exhibition, it can also be disassembled and recycled.
Zhao Zihan implanted his expectation in "Digital Circular Pavilion": to create a future in which devices or buildings can be reconstructed by digital technology
“Maybe it's just a starting point. When one day it's so common that it is not rare and fancy any more, it shows that it has become very popular." – Zihan
At that time, Zhao Zihan will also explore a new starting point, and the experiment to verify the interaction between architecture and human will never end.
3D Printed Bridge & The Potential of Large Scale 3D Printing
The world's first 3D printed pedestrian bridge has now been installed in a Shanghai park serving as a physical landmark in the downtown park, as well as a landmark in large scale 3D Printing. The Bridge weighs in at 5,800kg, of which 12.5% are glass fibers that run through the material adding stiffness and toughness to the ASA-3012 3D printing material developed by Polymaker. The Bridge was printed in just over 30 days and is the first project to be completed by the Shanghai Constructions Group's new large format printer.
The printer has a current build volume of 144 meters cubed the majority of which is consumed by a 25m Y axis allowing for very long objects to be printed. This allows the construction group to venture into unchartered territories for extrusion-based 3D printing on a scale never witnessed before. As we've seen 3D printing penetrate almost every other industry it was only a matter of time until the construction guys got involved.
The pedestrian footbridge can take a load of 13 metric tonnes which equates to 4 people per square meter and the bridge is expected to operate for 30 years in the park. The material used to print the bridge is an acrylonitrile styrene acrylate reinforced with glass fibers and developed by Polymaker through their industrial range of materials. ASA-3012 was chosen as the material of choice due to its weather resistance and good mechanical properties. The addition of the glass fibers (12.5% by weight) adds both stiffness and toughness to the material while also lowering the coefficient of thermal expansion.
This means that when the material is heated and printed the expansion and contraction is much more controlled creating flat layers and eliminating internal stress within the material. The extruder on the 3D printer was developed by Coin Robotic who employed a tamping system to ensure all layers are completely level. The extruder is a pellet fed screw drive system with three heating zones, at the business end there is a 5mm nozzle which can pump 8kg of material per hour in 10mm layers.
Retaining heat on this scale proved to be a big issue in the testing phase of building this system, as it can take over 2 hours before the nozzle passes over the previous layer allowing the material to fully cool and crystallize reducing strength between the layers and producing a strong warp. This led Coin Robotic to add four industrial heat guns to their extruder system that bring the previous layer back up to heat prior to laying down a new layer, by raising the previous layer to the glass transition temperature it greatly increases the interlayer adhesion creating boosting the strength and eliminating the warping as the internal crystal structure can grow through the layers.
As development continues in large scale printing it made me wonder what role this technology could play on a grander scale, what if recycled plastics were repurposed to a 3D bridge instead of continuing the cycle of single-use plastic objects and ultimately ending up in our oceans. PETG used to create disposable drinks bottles is by far the most recycled plastic worldwide and shares many of its properties with ASA, what if we could repurpose the recycled plastic creating a long term solution to plastic waste. 3D printing large structures secures all the repurposed plastic in one place on land which is easy to manage, has a defined lifetime and can benefit thousands of people. While I'm always careful to dispose of my PETG bottles in the recycling bin, allowing the plastic to be turned into another single use bottle, how can I trust the next person will also recycle the plastic? Actually, by recycling the material I've given it another chance to end up in the wrong places, polluting our beaches and oceans. Imagine a third bin next to the current recycling and regular bins, called repurposing, a bin in which all materials are repurposed into long term 3D printed projects that can lock the plastic on land and benefit a huge number of people.
Footage of world's largest plastic 3D printer printing pedestrian bridge
Polymaker just released footage of Shanghai Construction Group’s 3D printer in the process of producing a pedestrian footbridge, which will take 30 days to complete as it will be 15 meters long and weigh 5,800kg. SGC has a reputation for going big as they built the second tallest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower. The 3D printer was built by Shenyang Machine Group and the extruder system was manufactured by Coin Robotic (who also built the bed), together totaling some $2.8 million in investment. Polymaker Industrial developed the ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) plastic for the print, a material chosen for its favorable properties of weather and chemical resistance, thermal stability, and toughness. To determine the best plastic for the job, Polymaker 3D printed a 5-meter version of the bridge with several different compounds before choosing AS100GF for its overall strength and printability. The bridge will be rated to hold 13 tons or four people per square meter, so strength is vitally important.
The plastic is 12.5% glass fibers by weight, adding strength and also reducing the warping effect that plagues large 3D prints. 3D Printing bigger isn’t as simple as just making a bigger printer because so much of 3D printing is related to heat retention and even heating, which becomes a trickier task the bigger the print/printer. In this case, the build chamber is 24 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 1.5 meters high, with a planned expansion to 3 meters high. That’s 144 cubic meters to keep heated, which is achieved by a large bellowed tent that moves with the gantry. The tent is heated to 38°C and blankets are placed on top of the print to slow the cooling process, allowing the polymer chains to relax without warping; the blankets also protect the print from dust. Yes, the build chamber is so large that technicians work inside the 3D printer while it’s operating to monitor the print and move the blankets.
But heating is only one 3D printing issue that’s exacerbated by increasing scale as there’s also layer levelness as well as bed and layer adhesion. For layers to bond well, they should be joined when they’re at a similar temperature; on this print, each layer takes several hours, so the previous layer has cooled significantly by the time the extruder comes back around for the next layer. The blankets and the glass fibers help slow this cooling, but the print head does a lot of work here by reheating the print with four 600°C hot air guns aimed around the extruder. The air guns ensure the print is always hot around where the extruder is working for maximum layer adhesion.
The layer levelness issue is solved here by a novel approach not seen on other 3D printers: tamping. Nozzles are round, meaning their extrusion is round, and when pushed flat as a layer they have a tapered top, which is not ideal for layer adhesion. For a desktop 3D printer with a nozzle size of 0.35mm, the taper is small enough to mostly not notice, but the SGC 3D printer uses a nozzle over 14x that size at 5mm so the tamping of the plastic right after it’s extruded makes a big difference in layer levelness and adhesion. And considering that, despite its gargantuan size and the fact that it’s extruding up to 8kg of plastic per hour, the printer is accurate to 0.1mm, those differences in levelness really matter. To get the first layer to adhere to the print bed, ASA pellets were glued to wooden planks that were then clamped to the steel bed. Sometimes the low-tech solution is the best solution.
A pedestrian bridge over a lake is a great way to showcase the largest 3D printed plastic object as it’s both an everyday, practical application and an interactive one that involves people touching and even relying upon (to keep them from getting wet) a 3D printed thing. Many people have never touched a 3D printed object and they still think of it as part fantasy and part future tech, so projects like this do a lot of good in terms of exposing the public to the reality and the possibilities of 3D printing.
CHINA UNVEILS THE WORLD’S LARGEST 3D PRINTED STRUCTURE
When it comes to 3D printing the ever- growing list of absolutely massive, large size 3D printing ventures is hard to ignore. You might remember Vulcan Pavilion which was record holder of the world’s biggest 3D printed structure in 2015 the Guinness World Records. Comprised of 1023 individual 3D printed units and standing at 8.08 meters long by 2.88 meters high. Well, they say that ‘records are made to be broken’ and thats exactly what happened in the 3D printing world. Beijing’s amazing 3D PRINTED Vulcan Pavilion has been ousted as the world’s largest 3D printed structure.
The new pavilion was officially awarded the Guinness World Record for largest 3D printed structure on August 20th, 2016. Beijing-based DeFacto was commissioned to design a structure for their client, Rise Education.
Rise Pavilion is certainly more than impressive. The pavilion weighs in at 1.87 tons, stands more than 11 feet tall, and spans over 1180 square feet. Each of the pavilion’s 5 arcs represents a sector of the competition: heath, transportation, society, education, art and design.
Constructed with over 5,300 poly-blocks that will all be up-cycled into a number of new and decorative pieces. The story behind creation of Pavilion is even more then amazing as the ultimate goal of the project is to make young generations think about recycling and ecological design and to encourage “a shift towards multi-functional and environmentally friendly goods.” Currently, the Rise Pavilion as part of the ongoing Young Creator Cup exhibition in Beijing. As the structure has been constructed with modularity in mind and can be built and rebuilt by simply removing individual blocks, this means when the exhibition wraps up on September 6th, all of the student participants will be allowed to take home a block from the structure to be used as they like.
The blocks are designed to be printed without support material and they are made entirely with PolyMaker’s PolyPlus biodegradable filament produced with patented Jam-Free™ technology that ensures consistent extrusion and prevents jams. For the project they employed 70 desktop 3D printers, with DeFacto’s partner UCrobotics, printing out all the parts in 45 days.
Check out our interview with David Doepel, the designer of Rise Pavilion.