Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Science

Prize for glass bridge to hang from

Fun, beauty, education, mechanics, craftsmanship. Many things come together in the award-winning glass structure ‘Ziptruss’. Delta spoke to Ate Snijder, one of the designers.

The Ziptruss may look like a bundle of fluorescent tubes, but it is far from fragile. (Photo: Architecture/TU Delft)

Ate Snijder and his tutor Professor Rob Nijsse (Faculties of Architecture and the Built Environment, and Civil Engineering and Geosciences) have already pulled off stunning feats with structural glass – glass that bears forces. They have already built a bridge, a turret and a swing from glass. But for last year’s Glasstec 2022 trade fair (22-25 October 2022 in Düsseldorf, Germany), they wanted to outdo themselves and create something that would outshine their specialist brethren from Dortmund, Darmstadt and Dresden. One of the biennial fairs was cancelled because of Covid and that gave them time to make something special. 

Ziptruss makes internal forces visible. Magic or technology? (Video: Oculus Film)

It had to be something big, something interactive that once again was also related to education at TU Delft. Thus an idea was born for a 14 metre long glass truss construction with a zip line underneath. That became the Ziptruss. 

You can hang from it with your full weight and swing from one end to the other. As you do so, the glass tubes above your head change colour, depending on the load: red for pull, blue for pressure. “We have made invisible forces visible,” says Snijder.

Besides this educational model, the Ziptruss also features a spectrum of light shows for which Mechanical Engineering student Koen Bakker went all out on the programmable Arduino. After returning to the Netherlands, the Ziptruss won the Glass Innovation Award 2023 from Koninklijk Bouwend Nederland Vakgroep GLAS. 

Rob Nijsse and Ate Snijder with the Glass Innovation Award. (Photo: Koninklijk Bouwend Nederland)

The magic is in the 1.6 metre long tubes, reveals Snijder. These are 120 millimetres in diameter and nine millimetres thick. On the inside is a transparent coating that holds the glass together after breakage. About half of the original pressure load then remains.

Inside the tube is a Perspex tube that makes the appearance diffuse. And inside that is a tube with computer controlled LED lights. A steel cable runs through the centre of each tube, absorbing the tensile forces. The ends are encased in an aluminium end section made by the Octatube construction company and Proliad, the LED specialist, that extends to a wire end.

Ziptruss is currently in storage at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. The intention is for the setup to be fully functional in front of the Science Centre’s new home. Any passer-by can then play with it. Everyone happy, but waterproofing is still a thing.

  • More about Ziptruss and other structural glass projects is available on glassswing.com. Also listed are all the people and companies who collaborated on it.
Science editor Jos Wassink

Do you have a question or comment about this article?

j.w.wassink@tudelft.nl

Comments are closed.