3D printing with steel - Additive manufacturing of details, connections and members

3D printing with steel – additive manufacturing of details, connections and members. Fully automated production has arrived in the fabrication of structural steel. Although there are only very few companies that have steel components completely assembled by robots, the lack of skilled workers combined with continuous progress in the technology has led to a steady growth in this area. For example, one robot holds a base-plate or a stiffener to a column while the second one welds the seams. Welding robots can also use WAAM (Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing) to produce details (stiffeners), connections, components (especially with unusual geometries) and entire structures. The wire electrode serves as printing material. This not only simplifies the logistics in the fabrication, since stiffeners or other connecting elements no longer have to be cut to size in advance and delivered to the assembly site. It also results in new shapes that require a new design process, in accordance with the flow of forces and in an optimised manner. This paper shows, besides a short overview of WAAM, some built examples from research projects of the department of steel construction of TU Darmstadt, new solutions for old problems resulting from the optimization, and the first bridge which was completely printed on site. © 2020, Ernst und Sohn. All rights reserved.