Based on the College of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), chilly spray additive manufacturing was efficiently utilized in a first-of-its-kind bridge restore demonstration in Nice Barrington, Massachusetts. The pilot undertaking came about on the ‘Pink Bridge’ (previously the ‘Brown Bridge’), a construction from 1949, and was led by UMass Amherst in collaboration with MIT’s Division of Mechanical Engineering.
Chilly spray additive manufacturing entails propelling powdered metal by compressed fuel at excessive velocity, layering the fabric onto corroded sections to rebuild thickness and structural integrity. This method, generally utilized in industries akin to aerospace and naval engineering, had by no means been beforehand utilized to bridges.
“Now that we’ve accomplished this proof-of-concept restore, we see a transparent path to an answer that’s a lot quicker, more cost effective, simpler, and fewer invasive,” mentioned Simos Gerasimidis, UMass Amherst affiliate professor and undertaking lead.
Bridges throughout the US are in dire want of upkeep – 49% are rated ‘honest’ and 6.8% ‘poor,’ in accordance with the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. In Massachusetts, 9% of bridges require pressing repairs, but funding falls quick. Chilly spray may supply a scalable, much less disruptive answer, permitting repairs with out halting visitors. “This can enable us to [apply the technique] on this particular bridge whereas automobiles are going [across],” mentioned Gerasimidis.
The group additionally employed 3D LiDAR scanning to exactly determine injury and create digital restore plans. “By combining scanning with exact materials deposition, we may be very focused… and provides this bridge one other 10 years of life,” mentioned Gerasimidis.
MassDOT, the US Division of Transportation, and MassTech supported the trouble. Tools was funded by the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, with the purpose of advancing the commercialization of cutting-edge restore applied sciences.
The bridge is scheduled for demolition in a couple of years, after which UMass will retrieve the repaired beams for lab testing to evaluate subject efficiency versus lab outcomes. “This can be a super collaboration,” mentioned John Hart, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. “We’re simply initially of a digital transformation of bridge inspection, restore, and upkeep.”
