Next season, the Raiders will relocate to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Their new home is still under construction, but among its attractions will be the largest 3D-printed structure in the world. An 85-foot tall memorial torch honoring former Raiders owner Al Davis is being printed out of carbon fiber and aluminum in Kansas, and then assembled piece-by-piece in Nevada.
Davis owned the Raiders from 1972 until his death in 2011. His son Mark Davis is now the principal owner of the team, and is overseeing the Raiders’ move to Nevada.
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According to Allegiant Stadium COO Don Webb, only two printers exist in the world capable of 3D-printing a structure of this magnitude. The Al Davis Memorial Torch will span two levels inside the venue, and will be surrounded by the 55,000-square-foot Peristyle Club, which is designed to be one of the stadium’s main hangout spots. The flame atop the torch won’t be a real fire, according to Webb.
“The reason it’s 3D printed is they can have absolutely flawless geometry to it,” Webb told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “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.”
