Today was a day, to say the least. We started by going to see the 3D bridge in the middle of the red-light district. I will not detail the surrounding area, but we saw another side of the Netherlands. I found it very interesting that there is very little crime around that area, and many of the issues come from visiting tourists. This does make sense since a lot of the things are not legal in the US. We then went to visit the company that created the bridge MX3D. There we learned how they made it and the benefits of 3D printing. Some of the benefits include flexibility, which allows for increased geometry freedom. The second is end-to-end, a tool for WAAM technology that can go from design to print and data logging and process analytics all in one process. Third is intelligent automation which allows for built-in checks on the feasibility of the design and advanced robot kinematics. Fourth is speed. This allows customers to start 3D metal printing fast and lower costs by combining a standard industrial robot and a power source. Fifth is the easy ability to use it because it has fast adoption due to advanced automation requiring only basic engineering skills. Finally, the continuous monitoring user interface allows users to track the progress and quality of the print process live and to monitor events and issues during printing. I didn’t know much about 3D printing, but today gave me an insightful view of what it is.

In the presentation, he also touched on the supply chain process of 3D printing. First off is the design file, then print feasibility, following print parameter settings, moving on to toolpath planning, then metal printing, next process control/monitoring, and finally, the printed report for the there to be the final product. This is all under data analytics.

The rest of the day, I am not going to lie, started going downhill. After the presentation, we walked around awhile and ended up at Burger King out of desperation. We then trudged through a muddy path because we thought it may have been faster than the dangerous sidewalk with the bikers, but we were very wrong. We then had our group dinner and tried authentic Dutch food, and needless to say, it wasn’t for my taste buds. But I was very happy to have experienced it and got a taste of the culture. Overall it was an eventful day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow in Rotterdam.