On Wednesday 20th March, Billington Structures sponsored The University of Sheffield’s 3D Bridge Challenge.
Previously, the annual event hosted by the University’s Department of Civil and Structural Engineering tasked teams with constructing a metre-long bridge out of nothing but spaghetti and glue. Moving with the times, this year the students used 3D models from their brand new iForge facility.
The reimagined ‘3D Bridge Challenge’, allowed the contestants to design and manufacture a small-scale bridge, created by the use of 3D printing technology.
The competition is a fun event, albeit including a healthy level of competition.
This challenge forces the students to think carefully about the dissipation of forces within a structure; it provides an opportunity for the students to experiment with various analysis software and to see how their designs translate into scale models subject to loading.”
Billington would like to thank Sheffield University Engineering Dept for hosting this, and in particular Weronika Pawlowska and Yomna Eid, who were key organisers of this year’s event.
Mick was subsequently given a short tour of the iForge and was taken by the popularity of the area, which generally has students queuing to access.
It is worth noting that in 2014 Billingtons were part of the construction team who helped build the Engineering Block and what was to become known as the “Diamond” building, now an iconic landmark structure in Sheffield.
