A world-first in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, Foster + Partners have designed and manufactured an additive steel truss using the massive hybrid-manufacturing machine called LASIMM (Large-Scale Additive Subtractive Integrated Modular Machine).
Foster + Partners was awarded an EU grant in 2016 to develop, build and test a LASIMM in collaboration universities and research and technology organizations. These collaborators include BAE Systems in the aerospace industry and Vestas in the energy sector. In addition to the design and production of the machine itself, the aim of the undertaking was to design and produce a prototypical structural element, such as a truss, that could benefit from and be enhanced by this method of fabrication.
Additive manufacturing has been prevalent in the manufacturing sector for some time now but has yet to be used in the manufacturing of structural elements in buildings. This is perhaps surprising given the extensive use of fabricated steel in construction.
The new machine developed by the project team is capable of rapidly depositing steel or aluminium into a rough approximation of the part desired. The deposited metal is then milled back to the desired shape. These two processes take place in one hybrid machine, without movement of the printed element. The software used to prepare the digital design for manufacture, and to drive all the different aspects of the machinery was developed by Autodesk.
The ultimate aim of Foster + Partners was to produce a steel cantilevered beam that could demonstrate the possibility of integrating 3D printed steel components in buildings. Different beam sizes ranging from two to five meters were tested.
The beam was a successful result of the tests. The objective now is to now apply LASIMM to an actual commercial project.
