In a town called Paradise in Nevada, there stands a massive steel structure which will soon be the home of the Oakland Raiders NFL team. The structure—the new Allegiant Stadium—will also be the home to a massive 3D printed structure: an 85-foot-tall memorial torch to honor to Al Davis, the late owner of the Raiders. In fact, the memorial will reportedly qualify as the world’s largest 3D printed structure when it is complete.
The news of the 3D printed structure was broken this week by the Las Vegas Review Journal, which reported that the frame for the Al Davis Memorial Torch is in place and that the final components for the installation are now being 3D printed in Kansas.
Though we don’t have any details about who is 3D printing the parts for the memorial torch, I can’t help but wonder if local company Dimensional Innovations is involved…after all, it did acquire a $2.2 million Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) system from Thermwood last May.
At the time, Dimensional Innovations also said it was working on a “secret project” which consisted of the production of a large-scale “iconic element” that needs to meet wind load and fire-proofing requirements. Of course, this is still just speculation on my part!
In any case, here is what we do know about the 3D printed Al Davis Memorial Torch: it will be located in the north facing end of the Allegiant Stadium and it will be the focal point of a 55,000-square-foot club area that will be open to all ticket holders.
As a torch, the memorial structure will also have some kind of special flame effect, which will, according to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review Journal, be the first of its kind. We also know that the 3D printed torch will be made from carbon fiber and aluminum.
“That will literally be the largest 3D printed object in the world,” Las Vegas Stadium Co. Chief Operating Officer Don Webb told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “Only two printers can do this and we have one back in Kansas City doing this right now. The reason it’s 3D printed is they can have absolutely flawless geometry to it. It’s complex geometry, it’s not a cylinder, it’s a swooping kind of thing. It’s a sculpture. In order to have that so it’s absolutely perfect you just can’t manipulate materials by hand without having some imperfections. So that’s why it’s being 3D printed.”
The Allegiant Stadium is expected to open in 2020.
