IM20204EN

Volume 4 2020

3D PRINTING TURNS AEROGEL INTO A CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL POWER BRICK OLD TYRES AND BUILDING RUBBLE TO MAKE SUSTAINABLE ROADS A BASALT BATTERY EGGSHELL LONGEST 3D PRINTED CONCRETE BRIDGE

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CONTENT About

Innovatieve Materialen (Innovative Materials) is a digital, independent magazine about material innovation in the fields of engineering, construction (buildings, infrastructure and industrial) and industrial design.

A digital subscribtion in 2020 (6 editions) costs € 39,50 (excl. VAT) Members of KIVI and students: € 25,- (excl. VAT)

01 News 18 3D printing turns aerogel into a construction material

Aerogel is an excellent thermal insulator. So far, however, it has mainly been used on a large scale, for example in environmental technology, in physical experiments or in industrial catalysis. Researchers of the Swiss materials research institute Empa have succeeded in making aerogels accessible to microelectronics and precision engineering. It shows how 3D-printed parts made of silica aerogels and silica composite materials can be manufactured with high precision. This opens up numerous new application possibilities in the high-tech industry, for example in microelectronics, robotics, biotechnology and sensor technology.

The article - ‘Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels’ - was published on July 20th in the scientific journal ‘Nature’.

22 Power Brick

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Innovative Materials platform: Dr. ir. Fred Veer, prof. ir. Rob Nijsse (Glass & Transparency Research Group, TU Delft), dr. Bert van Haastrecht (M2I), prof. Wim Poelman, dr. Ton Hurkmans (MaterialDesign), prof.dr.ir. Jos Brouwers, (Department of the Built Environment, Section Building Physics and Services TU Eindhoven), prof.dr.ir. Jilt Sietsma, (4TU.HTM/ Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE), Kris Binon (Flam3D), Guido Verhoeven (Bond voor Materialenkennis/SIM Flanders, Prof. dr. ir. Christian Louter Institut für Baukonstruktion Technische Universität Dresden).

Red bricks can be converted into energy storage units that can be charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Chemists in Arts & Sciences have developed a method to make or modify ‘smart bricks’ that can store energy until required for powering devices.

A proof-of-concept was published last summer in Nature Communications titled ‘Energy storing bricks for stationary PEDOT supercapacitors’.

24 Old tyres and building rubble to make sustainable roads

Researchers at RMIT University Australia showed a blend of old tires and building rubble could be used to create a sustainable road-making material. Designed to be a base layer, the recycled blend is more flexible than standard materials, making roads less prone to cracking.

26 A basalt battery

The future of energy storage may not be in high tech batteries, but in basalt. The first time such basalt storage is actually applied is in Boekel, the Netherlands, where the first houses of ‘Ecodorp Boekel’ will be completed this autumn. (Ecovillage Boekel is a fully sustainable residential area.) It will be provided with the so-called Centralized Electricity Storage And Recovery System (CESAR) that was developed by electrical engineer and inventor Van Nimwegen. The heart of CESAR is made of stone, basalt to be precise.

28 Eggshell

Eggshell is a novel fabrication process for the creation of non-standard, reinforced concrete structures, developed by a team of Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich.

The process exploits the controlled hydration of concrete as developed in Smart Dynamic Casting. By carefully controlling the early age strength gain of the concrete, 3D-printed recyclable formworks can be used for the casting of full scale, concrete building elements.

30 Longest 3D printed concrete bridge is in China

Last July, Guinness World Records certified the 3D printed concrete bridge of the Hebei University of Technology (HEBUT) in Tianjin (China) as the world’s longest.

With a length of 28.1 meters (17.94 meters by span), the concrete bridge is based on the historical Zhaozhou bridge, a 1,400-year-old stone arch structure in North China’s Hebei province. The bridge was achieved by a HEBUT-team lead by prof. Ma Guowei.

It’s the most recent milestone in the 3D printing of increasingly longer bridges.

Cover: 3D printing turns aerogel into a construction material; page 18

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

NEWS

Identical wooden blocks are individually arranged with Augmented Reality (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Gramazio Kohler Research)

Augmented acoustics Last edition of Innovative Materials (nr. 3 2020) payed attention to the The Kitrvs winery faรงade project by Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich. The 225 m2 large wavy faรงade was built to demonstrate how augmented bricklaying combines the advantages of computational design with the dexterity of humans, supporting an entirely new way of fabrication.

The technology pioneered by the ETH spin-off incon.ai helps the bricklayers to position the bricks with millimetre precision. It allows blocks to be positioned with pinpoint accuracy, creating structures with aesthetic designs and augmented acoustics.

Meanwhile Gramazio Kohler Research and the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich have developed an augmented object laying technology, which provides visual guidance for the builder to place al kind of blocks or objects in accordance to a specified design. The software has already been used in another project, a

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NEWS

timber application. To improve acoustic qualities in the cafeteria of Basler & Hofmann in Esslingen, Switzerland, three acoustic walls with a total area of 90 m2 have been computationally designed by Gramazio Kohler Architects.

Augmented Acoustics combines the computational design of an acoustic timber wall with a novel augmented reality in-situ assembly method. The carpenters are equipped with a custom-built camera controller unit, while feedback

is provided via a monitor. The system recognizes and tracks objects and provides feedback on deviations between the built structure and the virtual design.

The walls of the Basler & Hofmann cafeteria are composed of 8500 identical fir timber blocks. To improve the speech intelligibility each timber block has a unique position and orientation based on the principals of the Schroeder Diffusor.

Due to the asymmetric cut of the front side of the blocks, the different orien-

tations of the blocks create customized shadow patterns on the wall, dynamically changing throughout the day. The varying gaps between the blocks in the bond improve the acoustic absorption and function as air ducts for the ventilation system integrated behind the walls.

Gramazio Kohler> incon.ai>

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NEWS

Co-Creation Centre pavilion fully supported on glass Can a faรงade made exclusively of glass and silicone without any further connecting means support a 20-ton roof?

Yes, it can. In theory, the roof can even rest on one 4 cm thick glass column, without risk of collapse. The proof is on The Green Village, the testing ground for sustainable innovations in the urban environment, on TU Delft Campus.

The experiment represents a breakthrough in the application of allglass facades in single-layered buildings.

The results are so convincing that TU Delft will present them to NEN for recognition as a standard. With that standard, a dream of many architects would come true. Architects will be able to design 100% transparent glass facades, without structural interruptions. Such a fully

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NEWS

load-bearing glass facade consumes much less material, which also makes it a very sustainable solution.

The experiment is being carried out in the Co-Creation Center, the event center under construction by client The Green Village and designed by Mecanoo. With the project, TU Delft, main contractor Kroon & de Koning, Si-X (glass engineering and assembly) and ABT as advisers and supervisors wanted an answer to the following question: can glass wind fins also serve as load-bearing columns?

And is there sufficient load-bearing capacity and stability to support the full roof weight?

The team came up with a solution with 5.5 meter high wind- and support fins, consisting of 3 glass plates of 12 mm thickness. The glass plates were attached to the tripleglass glass facade panels with two-component silicone. The results exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Even one fin with three broken glass blades could already carry the full roof weight of 20 tons.

ABT> Kroon & de Koning>

Co-Creation Centre The Co-Creation Center is a collection of different research projects; a laboratory of sustainable innovations, including a fully load-bearing glass construction. Innovation and co-creation are central to the project, in which scientists and innovative entrepreneurs work closely together.

Mecanoo>

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NEWS

Veneer layer composites In a recently started project Fraunhofer IKTS, the Chair of Textile Technologies at Chemnitz University of Technology and the Institut für Holztechnologie Dresden (IHD) are developing processes to optimize wood-based materials for highly stressed applications.

According to Fraunhofer, wood-based materials are superior to their non-renewable alternatives, such as metals or plastics. Natural irregularities and fluctuations affect the mechanical behaviour of the material and turs out to be an obstacle to its use. In the joint project ‘Development of processes for the load-path-compatible design of textile-reinforced veneer layer composites’, the project partners intent to develop processes for the material-optimized design of veneer layer composites over the next 30 months. Therefore, veneer properties will first be characterized non-destructively using ultrasonics. In

6 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

addition, a novel simulation model will predict the load-dependent deformation behaviour in order to identify application-relevant weak points. These can then be compensated by the targeted introduction of textile reinforcements in the form of flax or basalt fibres. In this way, the actual capacity of veneer-based materials can be exploited resource-efficiently.

Fraunhofer>

Using a sensor (top) and reflector foil (grey), the wood veneer is examined non-destructively. The propagation of the ultrasonic waves within the veneer sheets provides information about weak points in the material

NEWS

Layered Composite Insulation Earlier this year NasaTechbriefs payed attention to NASA’s Layered Composite Insulation (LCI) technology which is - according to NASA - a cost-saving piping insulation and can be used in refrigerated containers that protect food, medicine, and other perishables. The technology combines a layered cryogenic insulation system with specific manufacturing, packaging, wrapping, and rolling methods. According to Nasa one of the special features of the LCI is its superior thermal performance.

Approximate R-values per inch for cryogenic conditions are R-1600 for high vacuum, R-90 for soft vacuum (about 1 torr), and R-10 for no vacuum.

The material was developed by NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) especially for use in nonvacuum applications and extreme environmental exposure conditions. This layered composite insulation system for extreme conditions (also called LCX) is particularly suited for complex piping or tank systems that are difficult or practically impossible to insulate by conventional means. Consisting of several functional layers, the aerogel blanket-based system can be tailored to specific thermal and mechanical performance requirements.

The synergistic effect of improvements in materials, design, and manufacture of this new insulation technology exceeds the performance of current Multi Layered Insulation (MLI) or foam insulation products. The new LCI insulation can be continuously rolled or can be manufactured in blanket, sheet, or sleeve form for numerous commercial insulation applications. It can also be utilized on aerospace cryogenic equipment, terrestrial cryogenic tanks, pipes, and valves.

More at NASA Techbriefs>

Layered Composite Insulation wrapped around a vessel

WE KUNNEN NIET ZONDER NATUUR Word nu lid op natuurmonumenten.nl en ontvang 4 x per jaar het magazine Puur Natuur

7 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

NEWS

New: Gorilla Glass Victus On 23 of July Corning Incorporated introduced Gorilla Glass Victus, the latest Gorilla Glass in the series. According to the company, both drop and scratch resistance significantly improved in this version.

Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning.

The alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass is used primarily as cover glass for portable electronic devices, including mobile phones, portable media players, portable computer displays, and television screens.

During its manufacture, the glass is toughened by ion exchange. The material is immersed in a molten alkaline potassium salt at a temperature of approximately 400 °C, wherein smaller sodium ions in the glass are replaced by larger potassium ions from the salt bath.

The larger ions occupy more volume and thereby create a surface layer of high residual compressive stress, giving

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the glass surface increased strength, ability to contain flaws, and overall crack-resistance, making it resistant to damage from everyday use. Many big phone brands use Gorilla Glass as the cover screen material in their smartphones, and for years Gorilla Glass was

considered the gold standard for scratch resistance.

That has changed in recent years.

Because of Corning’s focus on improving drop resistance, scratch resistance hasn’t improved since 2014, according to Corning’s own tests. And for consumers

NEWS who want the best of both worlds, the plateau in scratch resistance is obvious.

But the introduction of Gorilla Glass Victus seems to change that.

According to John Bayne, senior vice president and general manager, Mobile Consumer Electronics, his company has abandoned its usual approach of asking its technologists to focus on one goal.

Corning asked its specialists to focus on improving both drop and scratch resistance, and that’s what led to Gorilla Glass Victus, Bayne said.

In lab tests, Gorilla Glass Victus achieved drop performance up to two meters when dropped onto hard, rough surfa-

ces. According Corning competitive aluminosilicate glasses from other manufacturers typically fail when dropped from less than 0.8 meters. Gorilla Glass Victus also surpasses Corning Gorilla Glass 6 with up to a 2x improvement in scratch resistance. Additionally, the scratch resistance of Gorilla Glass Victus is up to 4x better than competitive aluminosilicate glasses.

Samsung will be the first customer to adopt Gorilla Glass Victus in the near future.

Corning>

Video: introduction of Gorilla Glass Victus

Video: how it’s made: Gorilla Glass

Researchers unveil mechanism to obtain metal ‘nanoscrews’ A Belgian-Spanish research team has succeeded in arranging gold atoms in a helix pattern on a gold nanocylinder.

This creates a screw, about a hundred thousand times smaller than ‘normal’ screws. This breakthrough was made possible by a collaboration between a team of researchers from CIC biomaGUNE in San Sebastian (Spain) and the EMAT Research Group of the University of Antwerp. The results of the study appeared this summer in the journal Science, titled ‘Micelle-directed chiral seeded growth on anisotropic gold nanocrystals.’

Researchers at the Centre for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials CIC biomaGUNE led by Prof. L. Liz-Marzan have developed a mechanism by which gold atoms are deposited by means of chemical reduction onto previously formed gold nanorods to produce a quasi-helicoidal structure (the particles acquire chirality). This geometry enables these ‘nanoscrews’ to interact with circularly polarized light much more efficiently than what is achieved with any other known object. These properties could lead to the detecting of biomolecules in a very selective and very sensitive way. What we have here is a

versatile, reproducible mechanism that is scalable for the fabrication of nanoparticles with strong chiral optical activity.

The 3D characterization of these novel structures was made possible through advanced electron tomography methods developed by Prof. Sara Bals from EMAT, University of Antwerp.

The preparation and characterization of such complex chiral nanoparticles is an important step in reaching a key scientific milestone. It was once believed that the complexity of biological superstructures could not be artificially prepared.

However, with increasing understanding of nanostructure design and growth, scientists can prepare atom-by-atom designed materials that are tailor-made for a desired application, and in doing so - continuously push the frontier of material design.

According to Bals, the discovery of this new method to make chiral nanoparticles is promising and can also be applied to other materials. For example, platinum can be ‘grown’ on gold, which may open up new applications in catalysis.

University of Antwerp, EMAT> More at phys.org>

Three-dimensional image of a nanoscrew. The diameter corresponds to 75 nm, one hundred thousand times smaller than a ‘normal’ screw

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NEWS

PET bottles can benefit from clean recyclates Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used packaging material for beverage bottles. More and more recycled PET (rPET) is used for the production of PET bottles, in order to make these packages more circular. The question is what the effects are of the use of rPET on the bottle properties and where possible limits lie. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research researched the effects of rPET on the properties of the bottles and on the quality of the contents of the bottles. Based on the results of this research, businesses can make a well-founded decision to use a certain level of rPET in their bottles.

rPET influences the migration of substances to the contents of the bottle, the degree of haze (a technical term for the optical transparency of the bottle) and discolouration of the bottles, and the strength of the bottle. Three types of rPET available on the market, with different qualities, were used in the study. Hundreds of bottles were created at a small productionlocation. The bottles were produced with different concentrations of rPET, specifically: 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % rPET. In addition, bottles were produced with 100% virgin PET.

The main research question was whether and to what extent the use of

The material properties of PET bottles are influenced by the quality of the

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Conclusions and recommendations

recycled material (rPET) and the grade in which it is used in the bottles. Recycled PET contains contaminants that can accumulate through successive recycling.

This causes PET bottles to become darker, yellower, and less transparent with every cycle. Furthermore, more substances migrate.

In other words: poor quality recycled material has a disproportionately large (negative) impact. In addition, there seem to be limits to the ratios of rPET to virgin when producing PET bottles. At relatively high percentages of rPET per bottle, the material properties decrease.

These risks can be limited by opting for high-quality rPET, e.g. from a mono-collection system such as the deposit refund system.

NEWS This study is part of the scientific research programme of the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging and the Top Institute Food and Nutrition. The research was supervised by an industrial advisory board with representatives from three soft drink manufacturers and the branch organisation FWS (soft drinks, water and juices).

WUR> Download scientific summary of the rPET research ‘Recycled PET in new bottles’>

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NEWS

Nature inspires first manufactured non-cuttable material Scientists of the Durham University (UK) created what they say is the first manufactured non-cuttable material called Proteus, named after the shape-changing mythical god. This new material, which could be used in the security and health and safety industries, can turn back the force of a cutting tool upon itself. They got the idea for the new lightweight material from the tough cellular skin of the grapefruit and the fracture resistant shells of the abalone sea creature.

The material is made from alumina ceramic spheres encased in a cellular aluminium, metallic foam structure and works by turning back the force of a cutting tool on itself. This results in a lightweight material, made of ceramic spheres inside a flexible cellular aluminium structure. In tests Proteus could not be cut by angle grinders, drills or high-pressure water jets.

When cut with an angle grinder or drill, the interlocking vibrational connection created by the ceramic spheres inside the casing blunts the cutting disc or drill bit. The ceramics also fragment into fine particles, which fill the cellular structure of the material and harden as the speed of the cutting tool is increased.

Water jets are also ineffective becau-

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se the curved surfaces of the ceramic spheres widen the jet to substantially reduces its speed and weaken its cutting capacity.

The research team says Proteus could be used to make bike locks, lightweight armour and in protective equipment for people who work with cutting tools.

Durham University>

Video

NEWS

Keeping Cool with Improved Super White Paints

A research team led by UCLA materials scientists has demonstrated ways to make super white paint that reflects as much as 98 % of incoming heat from the sun. The advance shows practical pathways for designing paints that, if used on rooftops and other parts of a building, could significantly reduce cooling costs, beyond what standard white ‘cool-roof’ paints can achieve.

The findings, published online in Joule, are according to UCLA a major and practical step towards keeping buildings cooler by passive daytime radiative cooling.

This can lower indoor temperatures and help cut down on air conditioner use and associated carbon dioxide emissions.

The best performing white paints currently available typically reflect around 85 % of incoming solar radiation. The remainder is absorbed by the chemical makeup of the paint. The researchers showed that simple modifications in a paint’s ingredients could offer a significant jump, reflecting as much as 98 % of incoming radiation.

Current white paints with high solar reflectance use titanium oxide. While the compound is very reflective of most visible and near-infrared light, it also absorbs ultraviolet and violet light. The compound’s UV absorption qualities make it useful in sunscreen lotions, but they also lead to heating under sunlight - which gets in the way of keeping a

building as cool as possible.

The researchers examined replacing titanium oxide with inexpensive and readily available ingredients such as barite, which is an artist’s pigment, and powered polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).

These ingredients help paints reflect UV light. The team also made further refinements to the paint’s formula, including reducing the concentration of polymer binders, which also absorb heat.

Beyond the advance, the authors suggested several long-term implications for further study, including mapping where such paints could make a difference and studying the effect of pollution on radiative cooling technologies.

UCLA has applied for a patent on the technology.

More at ULCA>

Under noontime sunlight, superwhite paints (labeled EL1 and EL3) developed by the researchers remain significantly cooler than traditional white paints (right corner, labeled EL2), which could lead to higher energy savings in buildings (Photo credit: Jyotirmoy Mandal)

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NEWS

Smart textiles become one large sensor Professor Fabien Sorin and doctoral assistant Andreas Leber, at the Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fibre Devices (FIMAP) in EPFL’s School of Engineering, have developed a technology that can be used to detect body’s movements - and a whole lot more.

The researchers invented a sensor that can detect different kinds of fabric deformation such as stretch, pressure and torque - all at the same time. The challenge was to find a method for differentiating all the convoluted movements, because it is very difficult for sensors to measure several stimulations simultaneously. Conventional sensors in textiles have several drawbacks. First, they are fragile and break easily. Second, you need a lot of them to cover a large area, which eliminates many of the advantages of fabrics. And third, each type of conventional sensor can detect

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Andreas Leber and Fabien Sorin, EPFL

NEWS only one kind of deformation. By incorporating concepts from reflectometry, Sorin and Leber were able to create soft fibre shaped sensors that open up new doors for smart textiles. (Reflectometry uses the reflection of waves at surfaces and interfaces to detect or characterize objects.)

According to the scientists it works similar to a radar, but it sends out electrical pulses instead of electromagnetic waves.

That means the fibre sensors operate like transmission lines, known from high-frequency communication. The system measures the time between when a signal is sent out and when it’s received, and uses that to determine the exact location, type and intensity of deformation. Creating the fibres is a complex task involving an optical fibre fabrication process applied to unusual materials such as elastomers or liquid metals that serve as the conductors. The structure includes micrometer-size features and has to be perfect, otherwise it won’t work. With

these fibres, the entire surface of a fabric becomes one large sensor.

Earlier this year this work was published in Nature Electronics, titled ‘Soft and stretchable liquid metal transmission

lines as distributed probes of multimodal deformations.’ (DOI 10.1038/s41928020-0415-y) More at EPFL>

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MAKE IT MATTER

MAKE IT MATTER MAKE IT MATTER is compiled in collaboration with MaterialDistrict (MaterialDistrict.com). In this section new, and/or interesting developments and innovative materials are highlighted.

Hemp panels The hemp panels are the result of research looking for a way to replace wood and plastic. Hemp is a sustainable crop that can be harvested multiple times per year. Its fibres are the strongest natural fibres. The panels are lightweight and strong, made only from natural materials. The panels can be produced in any shape and size. The hemp used for the panels is locally sourced by HempFlax in Groningen, The Netherlands. Jory Swart is a student at the Academie Minerva in The Netherlands. The panels were developed from research during his studies.

More MaterialDistrict>

Aluminium chain links The Spain-based company Kriskadecor developed a light, durable, sustainable and fully personalized alternative for interior design and architectural projects, based on aluminum chains.

According to the manufacturer, this is a versatile material that can easily be integrated into any project. All kinds of colors, shapes and sizes are available and it is possible to create logos or icons, patterns and all kinds of images with the material.

More at MaterialDistrict>

Lignoloc Lignoloc nails are made of beech wood and offer an sustainable alternative to metal nails or glue. Beech wood was especially chosen as it is indigenous to Austria, where the company is situated, and because its straight growth gives it the most homogenous cell structure. It is possible to drive the nails in with a hammer, without pre-drilling, as the hardness of the wooden nails is comparable to aluminium ones, but Beck recommends using their special LignoLoc pneumatic nailer, which generates a large amount of heat by friction and welds the nail with the surrounding wood.

More at Material District>

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MAKE IT MATTER Manureality Manureality is a board material made from horse manure with similar properties to chipboard or MDF. It consists of 80 % manure, chalk, water, and dissolvable glue. These ingredients are mixed, pressed into a mould and left to dry. For the project, as part of his graduation at Design Academy Eindhoven, designer Martijn Straatman aimed to find a more sustainable building material by going back to basics. He was inspired by construction techniques from Africa, South America and Asia.

More at MaterialDistrict>

3D Printed terracotta ‘reef tiles’ Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed specially designed 3D-printed terracotta ’reef tiles’ that can be attached by corals to promote coral recovery. In total, the team printed 138 600 mm tiles using a robotic 3D clay printing method with generic terracotta clay, which were fired at 1125 degrees Celsius. The tiles were ‘planted’ in July 2020 at the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong.

More at MaterialDistrict>

3D Printed homes for the homeless US-based technology company ICON, in collaboration with non-profit Mobile Loaves & Fishes, 3D printed a series of houses for the chronically homeless in Austin, Texas (USA).

The first building of the homeless project was a 45 square metre welcome centre, which was printed in 27 hours. The rest of the homes are 37 square metres, 3D printed with ICON’s Vulcan II printer. Each features one bedroom, one bath, a full kitchen, living room and large porch.

More at MaterialDistrict>

Zebra glass Researchers from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, USA, developed blue glass made from two types of invasive mussel species, which are a pest in the Great Lakes of the USA. The shells of the two species - Zebra and Quagga mussels - consist of 95 percent calcium carbonate, which can be converted into calcium oxide which is a raw material for glass production. They made two types, one with a higher and one with a lower mussel lime content. The former resulted in an ‘iceberg’ blue glass with green veins, and the latter in a deeper aqua blue glass.

Meer bij MaterialDistrict>

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RESEARCH

3D printing turns aerogel into a construction material To demonstrate that fine aerogel structures can be produced in 3D printing, the researchers printed a lotus flower made of aerogel (Image: Empa)

Aerogel is an excellent thermal insulator. So far, however, it has mainly been used on a large scale, for example in environmental technology, in physical experiments or in industrial catalysis. Researchers of the Swiss materials research institute Empa have succeeded in making aerogels accessible to microelectronics and precision engineering. It shows how 3D-printed parts made of silica aerogels and silica composite materials can be manufactured with high precision. This opens up numerous new application possibilities in the high-tech industry, for example in microelectronics, robotics, biotechnology and sensor technology.

The article - ‘Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels’ - was published on July 20th in the scientific journal ‘Nature’.

Silica aerogels are light, porous foams that provide excellent thermal insulation. In practice, they are also known for their brittle behaviour, which is why they are usually reinforced with fibres or with organic or biopolymers for large-scale applications. Due to their brittle fracture behaviour, it’s impossible to saw or mill small pieces out of a larger aerogel block. Directly solidifying the gel in miniaturised moulds is also not reliably

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- which results in high scrap rates. This is why aerogels have hardly been usable for small-scale applications.

Microstructures

An Empa team led by Shanyu Zhao, Gilberto Siqueira, Wim Malfait and Matthias Koebel have now succeeded in producing stable, well-shaped microstructures from silica aerogel by using a 3D printer. The printed structures can

be as thin as a tenth of a millimeter. The thermal conductivity of the silica aerogel is just under 16 mW/(m*K) - only half that of polystyrene and even significantly less than that of a non-moving layer of air, 26 mW/(m*K). At the same time, the novel printed silica aerogel has even better mechanical properties and can even be drilled and milled. This opens up completely new possibilities for the post-processing of 3D printed aero-gel

RESEARCH

A tiny, custom-made shield made of aerogel can effectively shield heat from electronic components. These thermal images show how the heat of a voltage controller on a motherboard is shielded (left without insulation, in the middle with an aluminum strip, right with a 3D-printed, custom-made aerogel block (far left); red/violet: high temperatures; green/blue: low temperatures) (Image: Empa)

mouldings. With the method, for which a patent application has now been filed, it is possible to precisely adjust the flow and solidification properties of the silica ink from which the aerogel is later produced, so that both self-supporting structures and wafer-thin membranes can be printed. As an example of overhanging structures, the researchers printed leaves and blossoms of a lotus flower. The test object floats on the water surface due to the hydrophobic properties and low density of the silica aerogel. According to Empa the new technology also makes it possible for the first time to print complex 3D multi-material microstructures.

face temperature of 37 degrees in order to protect body tissue.

A functional aerogel membrane 3D printing allows multilayer/multi-material combinations to be produced much more reliably and reproducibly.

This opens the way to new, surprising

technical applications, like a ‘thermo-molecular’ gas pump. This permeation pump manages without any moving parts at all and is also known to the technical community as a Knudsen pump.

The principle of operation is based on the restricted gas transport in a network of nanoscale pores or one-dimensional

Insulation materials

With such structures it is now comparatively trivial to thermally insulate even the smallest electronic components from each other. The researchers were able to demonstrate the thermal shielding of a temperature-sensitive component and the thermal management of a local ‘hot spot’.

Another possible application is the shielding of heat sources inside medical implants, which should not exceed a sur-

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RESEARCH

channels of which the walls are hot at one end and cold at the other. The team built such a pump from aerogel, which was doped on one side with black manganese oxide nanoparticles. When this pump is placed under a light source, it becomes warm on the dark side and starts to pump gases or solvent vapours.

In this way, 3D printing turns the high-performance material aerogel into a construction material. It can even be used for functional membranes that can be quickly modified to suit a wide range of applications. The Knudsen pump, which is driven solely by sunlight, can do more than just pump. If the air is contaminated with a pollutant or an environmental toxin such as toluene, air can circulate through the membrane several times and the pollutant is chemically broken down by a reaction catalyzed by the manganese oxide nanoparticles.

Such sunpowered, autocatalytic solutions are particularly appealing in the field of air analysis and purification on a very small scale because of their simplicity and durability.

The Empa researchers are now looking

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for industrial partners who want to integrate 3D-printed aerogel structures into new high-tech applications.

Text Empa> Video

Aerogel Aerogel is a synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas. The result is a solid with extremely low density and extremely low thermal conductivity. It consists of 95 to 99.98 % air and has a solid, highly porous, dendritic structure.

Nicknames include frozen smoke, solid smoke and solid air. Silica aerogels feel like fragile expanded polystyrene to the touch, while some polymer-based aerogels feel like rigid foams. Aerogels can be made from a variety of chemical compounds.

Aerogels are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly dried off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation.

RESEARCH

‘Material Microsurgery’: Transforming e-waste into strong, protective coating for metal

Recycling old electronic devices - ‘e-waste’ - is tricky because they contain small amounts of many different materials that cannot be easily separated. Now, two scientists, Rumana Hossai and Veena Sahajwalla (University of New South Wales1, UNSW Sydney) developed a selective, small-scale microrecycling strategy, which they use to convert old printed circuit boards and monitor components into a new type of strong metal coating. Their work was published on 13 July in ACS Omega (American Chemical Society), titled ‘Material Micro­surgery: Selective Synthesis of Materials via High-Temperature Chemistry for Microrecycling of Electronic Waste’.

E-waste contains many potentially valuable substances that can be used to modify the performance of other materials or to manufacture new, valuable materials. Previous research has shown that carefully calibrated high temperature-based processing can selectively break and reform chemical bonds in waste to form new, environmentally friendly materials. In this way, researchers have already turned a mix of glass and plastic into valuable, silica-containing ceramics.

They’ve also used this process to recover copper, which is widely used in electronics and elsewhere, from circuit boards.

Based on the properties of copper and silica compounds, Veena Sahajwalla and Rumana Hossain suspected that, after extracting them from e-waste, they

could combine them to create a durable new hybrid material ideal for protecting metal surfaces.

To do so, the researchers first heated glass and plastic powder from old computer monitors to 1500 °C, generating silicon carbide nanowires. They then combined the nanowires with groundup circuit boards, put the mix on a steel substrate then heated it up again. This time the thermal transformation temperature selected was 1000 °C, melting the copper to form a silicon-carbide enriched hybrid layer atop the steel.

Microscope images revealed that, when struck with a nanoscale indenter, the hybrid layer remained firmly affixed to the steel, without cracking or chipping.

It also increased the steel’s hardness by

125 %. The team refers to this targeted, selective microrecycling process as ‘material microsurgery,’ and say that it has the potential to transform e-waste into advanced new surface coatings without the use of expensive raw materials.

1

Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT@UNSW), School of Materials Science and Engineering (UNSW)

ACS> The article ‘Material Microsurgery: Selective Synthesis of Materials via High-Temperature Chemistry for Microrecycling of Electronic Waste’ is online>

Schematic of the formation of the SiC nanowire by thermal transformation and the formation of Cu-reinforced SiC hybrid layer on the steel substrate

21 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

RESEARCH

Power Brick Red bricks can be converted into energy storage units that can be charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).

Chemists in Arts & Sciences have developed a method to make or modify ‘smart bricks’ that can store energy until required for powering devices. A proof-of-concept published last summer in Nature Communications titled ‘Energy storing bricks for stationary PEDOT supercapacitors’.

A team of scientists from Washington University in St. Louis turned bricks into batteries, capable of directly powering emergency lighting for instance. According to the researchers, their method works with any regular brick or recycled bricks. As a matter of fact, the work that was published in Nature Communica-

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tions stems from bricks that the team bought at Home Depot right here in Brentwood (Missouri); 65 cents each.

Supercapacitor

Walls and buildings made of bricks already occupy large amounts of space, which could be better utilized if given an

additional purpose for electrical storage.

While some architects and designers have recognized the humble brick’s ability to absorb and store the sun’s heat, this is the first time anyone has tried using bricks as anything more than thermal mass for heating and cooling.

The team, led by Julio D’Arcy, assistant

RESEARCH professor of chemistry, showed how to convert red bricks into a type of energy storage device called a supercapacitor.

They developed a coating of the conducting polymer PEDOT, which is comprised of nanofibers that penetrate the inner porous network of a brick; a polymer coating remains trapped in a brick and serves as an ion sponge that stores and conducts electricity.

PEDOT

PEDOT (poly3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), is a polymer that is being researched extensively for organic electronics.

Organic electronics is a field of materials science concerning the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of organic molecules or polymers that show desirable electronic properties such as conductivity. Unlike conventional inorganic conductors and semiconductors, organic electronic materials are constructed from organic (carbon-based) molecules or polymers.

PEDOT possesses excellent chemical and physical stability as well as high electrical conductivity. It can be synthesized in several ways, especially by vapor-phase polymerization. This process, which uses an oxidizing agent in vapor form to cause molecules called monomers to bond together to form polymers, results in conformal coatings of low electrical resistance in a single step.

Usually, ferric (Fe3+) ions are used as the oxidizing agent, and they are introduced into the process in the form of ferric-ion-containing salts.

The red pigment in bricks - iron oxide - is essential for triggering the polymerisation reaction. The authors’ calculations suggest that walls made of these energy-storing bricks could store a substantial amount of energy. According to D’Arcy PEDOT-coated bricks are ideal building blocks that can provide power to emergency lighting for instance. They envisioned that, when these power

bricks were connected with solar cells, this could take fifty bricks in close proximity to the load. These fifty bricks would enable powering emergency lighting for five hours.

WUSTL> The paper ‘Energy storing bricks for stationary PEDOT supercapacitors’ was written by Hongmin Wang, Yifan Diao, Yang Lu, Haoru Yang, Qingjun Zhou, Kenneth Chrulski and Julio M. D’Arcy.

It’s online> Further reading: ‘Turning rust into supercapacitors’> More about PEDOT>

23 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

RESEARCH

Old tyres and building rubble to make sustainable roads Researchers at RMIT University Australia showed a blend of old tires and building rubble could be used to create a sustainable road-making material. Designed to be a base layer, the recycled blend is more flexible than standard materials, making roads less prone to cracking.

Construction, renovation and demolition account for about half the waste produced annually worldwide, while around one billion scrap tyres are generated globally each year.

Researchers from RMIT University Australia developed an optimized blend of recycled rubble and waste rubber for use in road base layers. According to the researchers, the material, which is optimised to meet road engineering safety standards, is more flexible than the usual materials, so that roads are less likely to crack.

According to lead researcher dr. Mohammad Boroujeni the rubble-rubber mix

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could deliver both environmental and engineering benefits. Traditional road bases are made of unsustainable virgin materials - quarried rock and natural sand. Instead, the RMIT mixture is a 100 % recycled alternative that offers a new way to reuse tyre and building waste, while performing strongly on key criteria like flexibility, strength and permanent deformation.

Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA) can potentially be used on its own for road base layers, but adding recycled rubber can significantly enhance the finished product.

In previous research, the RMIT School of Engineering team has shown their rubble-rubber blend performs well when tested for stress, acid and water resistance, as well as strength, deformation and dynamic properties. Its low shrinkage and good flexibility reduce the risk of cracking.

The new study published in Construction and Building Materials looked at how the mix would withstand the pressures of being driven over by countless vehicles over its lifetime.

Researchers used special machinery to assess the blended material’s perfor-

RESEARCH mance under frictional force, or shear stress, and compared different types of crumb rubber (fine and coarse) mixed into the RCA at different ratios.

The team identified an optimal mixture - 0.5 % fine crumb rubber to 99.5 % RCA - that delivered on shear strength while maintaining good cohesion between the two materials.

According to the RMIT-researchers, the new material is the first to combine recycled concrete aggregate and scrap tyres in a mix that meets road engineering safety standards.

The article ‘An experimental study on the shear behaviour of recycled concrete aggregate incorporating recycled tyre waste’ is published in Construction and Building Materials (DOI: 10.1016/j. conbuildmat.2020.120266).

More at RMIT>

The new material is the first to combine recycled concrete aggregate and scrap tyres in a mix that meets road engineering safety standards

25 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

A basalt battery The future of energy storage may not be in high-tech batteries, but in basalt. The first time such basalt storage is actually applied is in Boekel, the Netherlands, where the first houses of ‘Ecodorp Boekel’ will be completed this autumn. (Ecovillage Boekel is a fully sustainable residential area.) It will be provided with the so-called Centralized Electricity Storage And Recovery System (CESAR) that was developed by electrical engineer and inventor Van Nimwegen. The heart of CESAR is made of stone, basalt to be precise.

The future of energy storage may not be in high-tech batteries, but in basalt. The first time such basalt storage is actually applied is in Boekel, the Netherlands, where the first houses of ‘Ecodorp Boekel’ will be completed this autumn.

(Ecovillage Boekel is a fully sustainable residential area.) It will be provided with the so-called Centralized Electricity Storage And Recovery System (CESAR) that was developed by electrical engineer and inventor Van Nimwegen. The heart of CESAR is made of stone, basalt to be precise.

The idea behind CESAR is to store sustainable energy generated in the summer, for use in the winter. To this end, van Nimwegen designed an ingenious

26 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

installation of a pipe system surrounded by basalt grains; everything is packed in an insulating cover of glass foam granulate and rock wool. Meanwhile, the designer has built a test setup at De Gasthuishoeve in Sint Oedenrode (the Netherlands) for the storage of 10,000 kWh of sustainably generated electrical energy, in the form of heat. The system is housed in a container. It contains three metal spirals, each 120 meters long, with a diameter of 4.5 centimetres and a wall thickness of two millimetres. The spirals are surrounded by 40 m3 basalt split. The whole is wrapped in a thick layer of rock wool, so that the heat is available for a long time. Forty sensors have also been installed to monitor the heat output and absorption. The system works as follows.

The surplus of energy generated by solar panels in the summer is converted via the tubes into heat, which is then stored in the basalt.

Klick on the picture above for the infographic

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020 The mass of stones can be heated to 500 °C. Subsequently, this heat can be extracted from the basalt on demand by pumping air through the pipes and used for, for example, a heating installation.

The system has a storage capacity of up to 200 kWh/m3 basalt.

The CESAR system at Ecodorp Boekel is much larger than the proof-of-concept installation in Sint Oedenrode. It has a capacity of 160,000 kWh and consists of a silo with a concrete work floor. The silo is built partly underground. The underground part is packed in a waterproof bag to prevent the groundwater entering the heat storage. Aerated concrete compartments are built on the concrete floor. These compartments are filled with rock wool and covered with a

Artist impression of the basalt battery setup

plate that supports the storage material - basalt - with the tubes.

The outer wall is insulated by the use of rock wool, which is also housed in compartments. The first layer of glass foam granulate is placed on the cover plate applied. Glass foam is resistant to high temperatures and high pressure. The heat storage system is built up layer by layer on this substrate. Like the proof-ofconcept installation at Sint Oedenrode, the core of the system at Boekel consists of basalt chips and a pipe system.

Spirals, setup

When the storage space is filled, the top is covered with a layer of glass foam, and then with a layer of rock wool, again housed in compartments. The whole is finished at the top with a concrete lid.

The CESAR installation in Boekel will be powered by more than seven hundred solar panels on the roofs of the Ecodorp.

The installation is intended to provide heat for 36 households.

Cesar>

Test setup: container with sensors and insulation

Video

27 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

Eggshell Formwork removal Joris Burger; Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH

Eggshell Eggshell is a novel fabrication process for the creation of non-standard, reinforced concrete structures, developed by a team of Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich. The process exploits the controlled hydration of concrete as developed in Smart Dynamic Casting. By carefully controlling the early age strength gain of the concrete, 3D-printed recyclable formworks can be used for the casting of full scale, concrete building elements.

Traditionally, concrete casting relies on two separate processes for the fabrication of a concrete element. A formwork is put in place, after which concrete is casted and the element is left for demolding. Eggshell aims to combine these processes by 3D printing a thin-shell formwork whilst simultaneously casting concrete inside. Using this approach, geometrically complex structures can be fabricated efficiently, minimizing formwork waste. The control and synchronization of material properties for both printing and casting are essential to the

28 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020 fabrication process, as the hydrating concrete helps resist buckling behaviour of the thin shell formwork during printing.

An advantage of Eggshell is the easy integration of reinforcement, which is often considered to be a challenge for other digital fabrication methods such as concrete extrusion. Furthermore, the extended design space brought by the process grants the possibility of producing structurally efficient shapes such as branching columns which are difficult to fabricate otherwise.

Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH ZĂźrich> Credits: Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich In cooperation with: Physical Chemistry of Building Materials group (Prof. Dr. Robert J. Flatt) Collaborators: Joris Burger (project lead), Dr. Ena Lloret-Fritschi, Fabio Scotto, Nizar Taha, Bruno Pinto Aranda, Dr. Thibault Demoulin, Dr. Sara Mantellato, Andi Reusser, Michael Lyrenmann, Philippe Fleischmann

Eggshell MAS Twisting Column Wenqian Wan Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH

Eggshell Branching Column Catherine Leutenegger; Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH

Smart Dynamic Casting Smart Dynamic Casting (SDC) is a novel robotic slip-forming process, developed by ETH Zurich. It was created for efficient prefabrication of standard and non-standard structural elements of concrete without the need for full-size custom formwork. It aims to remove the need of individual made formwork for the construction of complex concrete structures.

Architectural construction has gone through intense innovations regarding material, engineering and design throughout the 20th century, and radically transformed the way buildings are conceived. These innovations ope-

ned up possibilities which challenged architects, engineers and constructors to build complex architectural concrete structures. Computer-Aided-Design and Computer-Aided-Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques have rejuvenated and radically increased the possibilities to of designing complex geometries. However, the generated designs have limited relation to the efficient modes of production used in concrete construction of today. The production of complex concrete structures often implies custom made formworks for each element produced, hence an unstainable and expensive process. Smart

Dynamic Casting specifically aims at removing the need of individual made formwork for the construction of complex concrete structures.

EHT>

Video

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INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

Hebei bridge

Longest 3D printed concrete bridge is in China Last July, Guinness World Records certified the 3D printed concrete bridge of the Hebei University of Technology (HEBUT) in Tianjin (China) as the world’s longest. With a length of 28.1 meters (17.94 meters by span), the concrete bridge is based on the historical Zhaozhou bridge, a 1,400-year-old stone arch structure in North China’s Hebei province. The bridge was achieved by a HEBUT-team lead by prof. Ma Guowei. It’s the most recent milestone in the 3D printing of increasingly longer bridges.

Since the introduction of 3D concrete printing technology about two decades ago it has received increasing attention from people in both academia and the construction industry. However, until recently, 3D printing technology is primarily used for the fabrication of decorative building components or prototypes in the laboratory only. This is because some technological improvements are still required before 3D-printed concrete can be widely used for fabrication of primary load-bearing building structures. An interesting example of the use of 3D-printed concrete structures in

30 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

Hebei bridge

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020 practice is the bridge in The Netherlands which was built at Gemert by researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and civil engineering company BAM Infra. The project claimed to be world’s first 3D printed reinforced, pre-stressed concrete bridge and the first civil infrastructure project to be realized with 3D-concrete printing.

The bridge is 8 meters long (clear span 6.5 meters) and 3.5 meters wide. It was opened on 17 October 2017.

Two months later, the 3D printed pedestrian bridge was opened in Castilla-La Mancha Park in Alcobendas, Madrid.

It was developed by a team led by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). The structure is printed in micro-reinforced concrete, and measures 12 meters in length and 1.75 meters wide. It also claimed to be world’s first.

The third milestone in 3D concrete bridge printing is the development of the Baoshan pedestrian bridge at Wisdom Bay Industrial Park, Baoshan District, Shanghai. The project was designed and developed by the team of Professor Xu Weiguo from Tsinghua University (School of Architecture) - Zoina Land Joint Research Center for Digital Architecture, and was jointly built with Shanghai Wisdom Bay Investment Management Company. The construction was completed in January 2019.

Bridge at Gemert

3D printed bridge at the Castilla-La Mancha Park in Alcobendas, Madrid

Three parts

The Baoshan pedestrian bridge is placed on top of a 14.4 meter wide pool, and is part of the pedestrian walkway of the industrial park. The structural design of the bridge is inspired by a traditional Chinese stone arch bridge, the Anji Bridge in Zhaoxian, China, which was built between 595 en 605. The Anji Bridge, commonly known as the Zhaozhou Bridge, is the oldest existing arch bridge in China.

The pedestrian bridge of Baoshan consists of three parts: the arch structure, the handrails and the pavements. The bridge structure contains 44 hollow-out 3D printed concrete units in the size of 0.9 x 0.9 x 1.6 meters; the handrails and pavements are also divided into 68 and 64 units for printing respectively. The printing materials of these components are all composite materials composed of polyethylene fiber concrete with various admixtures. After repeated ratio test and

Baoshan-bridge

printing experiments, it has controllable rheology to meet printing requirements; the pressure resistance strength of the new concrete material reaches 65 MPa and the flexural strength reaches 15MPa. The bridge is embedded with real-time monitoring system, including vibrating wire stress sensors and high-precision strain monitoring system, which can

collect the force and deformation data of the bridge in real time.

Innovations

The printing of the bridge uses the 3D printing concrete system developed by Professor Xu Weiguo’s team. The proces has the characteristics of high printing efficiency, high moulding precision and

31 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

Assembling the Baoshan-bridge

high constancy in prolonged work. As usual with this type of system, layers of concrete are applied on top of each other with a robot equipped with an extrusion head. According to Tsinghua University, there are three main innovation points of the system, taking the leading position in this field internationally. For instance the printing tool of the robot arm, which avoids plugging in extrusion process and collapse during the material’s layer stacking.

Another innovation is the printing material formula. A special composition of fibre reinforced concrete was developed and optimized which can meet the

3D printing of part of the Baoshan Pedestrian Bridge

32 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

requirements of both structural strength and printability. All of the concrete components of this bridge are printed with two robotic arm 3D printing systems in 450 hours. Compared with conventional bridge of similar size, its cost is only twothirds of the latter one; this is mainly because the printing and construction of the bridge’s main body did not use any templates or reinforcing bars, saving costs significantly.

The longest

On October 13th 2019, a prefabricated 3D-printed concrete bridge was completed on the Beichen Campus of Hebei University of Technology (HEBUT) in

Tianjin, China. The bridge was developed by the team of Prof. Ma Guowei, vice-president of HEBUT and dean of the School of Civil and Transportation Engineering. Last summer the bridge was officially certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s longest 3D printed concrete bridge.

The bridge at the Beichem campus is also based on the famous Anji Bridge, commonly known as the Zhaozhou Bridge bridge; in fact, it’s a replica. And in this case too, 3D printing of such a bridge turns out to be quite cost-effective.

According to the HEBUT university, compared with traditional construction, 3D printing saves about a third of building materials and two-thirds of manpower, and brings no increasing costs for more complex structures. It considerably reduces pollution, builds irregular concrete structures rapidly and flexibly without any templates and creates a unique 3D-specific surface during the process.

According to the HEBUT university, this achievement will promote a more ecological, industrial and intelligent building industry, thus advancing national construction industrialization.

Also the Tsinghua University predicts an important role for 3D printing in future construction in China. Due to the current demographic developments in China, the demand for labour in construction projects will be deficient increasingly.

Intelligent construction will be an important channel to solve this problem, the University says. It’s believed this will

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020 promote the transformation and upgrading of China’s construction industry. As an important part of intelligent construction, 3D printing will play an important role in the intelligent development of engineering construction.

More about the development of the Baoshan pedestrian bridge project was published in Fabricate 2020 (Fabrication and application of 3D printed concrete structural components in the in the Baoshan pedestrian bridge project).

It’s online> 3D printed bridge at Gemert>

Hebei bridge

The IAAC-pedestrian bridge> Hebei bridge at the Guinness Book of Records>

Video Baoshan bridge

Video Hebei bridge

Neem deel aan de enquête over Additive Manufacturing in Vlaanderen en Nederland…

En win!

17 organisaties hebben de handen in elkaar geslagen met één doel: een beter zicht krijgen op (het gebruik van) Additive Manufacturing in Nederland en Vlaanderen. We hopen dat u ook even de tijd neemt om deze enquête in te vullen. Met die informatie kunnen we aan de slag om de innovatiecapaciteit van ondernemingen in de regio te versterken. We hopen dat u ook deelneemt, zodat we met de verzamelde data beter kunnen inspelen op de noden van de industrie. Dat is ook in uw voordeel!

Om het nog iets aantrekkelijker te maken, hebben we ook enkele prijzen voorzien: Maak kans op 1 van de 10 exemplaren van The 3D Printing Handbook van 3DHUBS of de hoofdprijs: een gratis exemplaar ter waarde van € 1000.,Aan het einde van de enquête kunt u een kopie van de resultaten aanvragen.

De deelnemende organisaties zijn 3D-print magazine, 3DMZ (3DMakerszone), Berenschot, Binder3D, Brainport Eindhoven, Brightlands, Easyfairs, Flam3D, Flanders Make, Industrialfairs, Innovatieve Materialen, Jakajima, Mikrocentrum, NRK, Technishow Magazine, VLAIO en Vlamef.

Het initiatief wordt ook ondersteund door het Vlaams Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen (VLAIO).

Deelnemen? klik HIER>

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INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

ARCHITECT MEETS INNOVATIONS

ARCHITECT @WORK THE NETHERLANDS

Rotterdam Ahoy 16 & 17 september 2020 8° editie - 10:00-19:00

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ENTERPRISE EUROPE NETWORK

Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) supports companies with international ambitions The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is an initiative of the European Commission that supports entrepreneurs in seeking partners to innovate and do business abroad. The Network is active in more than 60 countries worldwide.

It brings together 3,000 experts from more than 600 member organisations – all renowned for their excellence in business support.

Database

Every company can participate by adjusting its profile to the database. This company will be brought to the attention in the country in which it wants to become active. At the same time it is possible to search for partners.

EEN advisers actively assist in compiling the profile, which is drawn up in a certain format. The EEN websites also contain foreign companies that are looking for Dutch companies and organizations for commercial or technological cooperation. The EEN advisers support the search for a cooperation partner by actively deploying contacts within the network. In addition, Company Missions

and Match Making Events are regularly organized. All these services are free of charge.

There are five types of profiles:

• Business Offer:

the company offers a product

Video: How Enterprise Europe Network works

• Business Request:

the company is looking for a product

• Technology Offer:

the company offers a technology

• Technology Request:

the company is looking for a technology

• Research & Development Request:

the organization seeks cooperation for research

When a company has both a Business Offer and a Business Request (or another combination), two (or even more if applicable) profiles are created.

The profile includes the most essential

information about the nature of the supply or demand, the ‘type of partner’ that is intended and the expected cooperation structure.

Get in touch with your local network contact point by selecting the country and city closest to where your business is based. They can help you with advice, support and opportunities for international partnerships.

For sustainable building and the creative industry, contact ir. drs. Hans Kamphuis: T: +31 (0) 88 042 1124 M: 06 25 70 82 76 E: hans.kamphuis@rvo.nl For Materials contact Nils Haarmans: T: +31 (0) 88 062 5843 M: 06 21 83 94 57 More information websites can be found at the Europe Network websites: www.enterpriseeuropenetwork.nl http://een.ec.europa.eu

35 | INNOVATIEVE MATERIALEN 4 2020

EVENTS The corona crisis makes it uncertain whether events will actually take place on the scheduled date. Many events are postponed, sometimes to 2021. The Agenda below shows the state of affairs as of September 2020.

For recent updates: www.innovatiememmaterialen.nl Architect@Work 2020 16 - 17 September 2020, Rotterdam

Formnext 2020, 10 - 13 November 2020, Frankfurt

SAMPE Europe Conference 2020 30 september - 1 October 2020, Amsterdam

BOUWXPO 13 - 15 November 2020, Kortrijk

EFIB 2020 5 - 6 October 2020, Online Frankfurt am Main

Precisiebeurs 2020 18 - 19 November 2020, Veldhoven

Techni-Mat 2020 7 - 8 October 2020, Kortrijk

Architect@Work 2020 Deutschland 25 - 26 November 2020, Wiesbaden

Architect@Work 2020 Deutschland 7 - 8 October 2020, Berlijn

Lijm-event 26 November 2020, Veldhoven

Nationale Staalbouwdag 13 October 2020, Online Rotterdam

European Bioplastics Conference 1 - 2 December 2020, Wenen

HK Härterei Kongress 2020 20 - 22 October 2020, Online Keulen

Kunststoffen 2020 2 - 3 December 2020, Veldhoven

81th Congress on Glass Problems 26 - 29 October 2020, Online Columbus

Architect@work Belgium 9 & 10 December 2020, Brussel

iENA Nuremberg 29 October - 1 November 2020, Neurenberg

World Biomaterials Congress, Online 11 - 15 December 2020, Glasgow

Composites for Europe 10 - 12 November 2020, Stuttgart

Ulmer Betontage 2021 23 - 25 February 2021, Ulm

GrindTec 2020 10 - 13 November 2020, Augsburg

EuroBLECH 2021, 9 - 12 March 2021, Hannover

36 | INNOVATIVE MATERIALS 4 2020

Innovative Materials, the international version of the Dutch magazine Innovatieve Materialen, is now available in English. Innovative Materials is an interactive, digital magazine about new and/or innovatively applied materials.

Innovative Materials provides information on material innovations, or innovative use of materials. The idea is that the ever increasing demands lead to a constant search for better and safer products as well as material and energy savings. Enabling these innovations is crucial, not only to be competitive but also to meet the challenges of enhancing and protecting the environment, like durability, C2C and carbon footprint.

By opting for smart, sustainable and innovative materials constructors, engineers and designers obtain more opportunities to distinguish themselves.

As a platform Innovative Materials wants to help to achieve this by connecting supply and demand.

Innovative Materials is distributed among its own subscribers/network, but also through the networks of the partners. In 2019 this includes organisations like M2i, 4TU (a cooperation between the four Technical Universities in the Netherlands), the Bond voor Materialenkennis (material sciences), SIM Flanders, FLAM3D, RVO and Material District.