Featured Student Work will be posted at the end of each academic quarter. Its purpose is to highlight select student projects made possible by the Rapid Prototyping Center.
Gary Clarke / Speed Form
- Discipline: Industrial Design (Transportation Track)
- Software: Alias StudioTools, ZPrint
- Technology: 3D Printing
- Machine: ZCorp 510 Powder Printer
The Speed Form is an introductory transportation design project. The smooth, undetailed form allows the student to focus on crafting a seamless surface model that will machine efficiently in the 3d printers.
The student begins by modeling the Speed Form from NURBS surfaces in Alias StudioTools. Ruled surfaces are stitched together to avoid gaps in the surface model, which would cause the 3d print to fail.
The student then breaks the Speed Form up into multiple components. This helps the model to fit within the print bed of the 3d printer, and may also help to keep the cost of the print down, which is primarily based upon the height of the build. Breaking a shelled model into components can also be useful as a means to provide escape outlets for loose powder trapped within the printed shell.
These snapshots of the 3d printer's build layers show the thickness of the shelled model. Watertight surfaces define layer profiles within which the 3d printhead lays binder (shown here in black).
The 3d print is finished, but there is some post-processing that needs to be done before the model is ready. Sanding, epoxying, painting, and clear-coating are common methods for finishing a 3d powder print. The student has modeled bosses and pockets into the Speed Form for a quick and reliable final assembly.
This rotisserie-style rack has a hand crank at the top, allowing the student to rotate the model while painting. Touching the model as little as possible is important for the integrity of the paint job, especially with the Speed Forms, which often use highly-reflective finishes to mimic automobile design and emphasize surface quality.
The model is finished with a metal flake spray paint and professionally photographed in the DAAP Photo Lab. It's good practice to photograph as soon as possible after the paint job is finished. Metal flake paints in particular are prone to, well, flaking.
Ed Mangum / Koi Lounge
- Discipline: Industrial Design (Product Track)
- Software: Alias StudioTools, Delcam PowerMILL, Adobe Illustrator, Delcam PowerShape, LaserLink
- Technology: CNC Milling, Laser Machining, a little bit of sewing
- Machine: KOMO CNC Router, BEAM Dynamics Laser Cutter
"Koi Lounge is a tiled seating
system that enhances the mood and atmosphere in a variety of public spaces. The felt seat seemingly emerges from the
ground..."
The base form of Koi Lounge is constructed from fourteen layers of CNC-milled MDF slabs. Pins will be inserted into the modeled holes to reference the slabs to one another in the construction of the final form.
The base form is made up of three smaller forms. The middle form will eventually support the water bladder while the top form will be used as a steam mold for the felt veneer.
The slabs are cut from nine 8 x 9' sheets of MDF. Some slab layers are split in half to efficiently fit the machined parts onto the sheets, which in turn must be a suitable size for the KOMO bed.
The laser machining of the felt pattern consists of five over-sized sheets. The excess felt was rolled and bunched to the sides of the 48 x 48" laser bed. Three of the sheets required more than one position in order to etch the full pattern (which often exceeded the maximum cutting area) resulting in a total of eight laser setups for the felt.
sheet 1/5
sheet 2/5 position 1
sheet 2/5 position 2
sheet 3/5 position 1
sheet 3/5 position 2
sheet 4/5 position 1
sheet 4/5 position 2
sheet 5/5
Ed looks on at the final critique of the Koi Lounge. Shown above is the RF-welded PVC plastic bladder sitting atop the CNC-milled MDF base. Apparently you can't help but touch it.
Chengguo Zhao / Triathlon Training Facility
- Discipline: Architecture
- Software: Autodesk Maya, ZPrint
- Technology: 3D Printing
- Machine: ZCorp 510 Powder Printer
"Design a triathlon training center using design principles and methods involving a structure of three; a primary, secondary, and tertiary system for planning and enclosure design."
_excerpt from course description
These diagrams explain the evolution from parti to spatial volume to a tripartite system of slab, structure, and skin. These elements were visualized in Maya. Maya's polygonal modeling tools are a common method for breaking up a digital form into poly faces that can be edited individually or uniformly as selection sets, which begins to address construction strategies and allows the student to quickly create a wide range of building apertures.
The student's structural mesh. Polygonal modeling, when done with care, is also an excellent way to ensure that you are always modeling a watertight surface, which lends itself to a successful 3d print. Furthermore, Maya's attribute history allows the student to quickly modulate the thickness of the mesh shell without remodeling anything.
The student's printed mesh. Due to the relative fragility of the structural form, the student modeled a base in order to provide a handhold that wouldn't crush the model as well as a contact surface between the printed form and the paper topography below.
The student's skin mesh showing a variety of apertures achieved through Maya polygonal modeling.
To finish his 3d print, the student applied a silver spray paint that is sufficiently matte to show the polygonal edges of the digital model, which mimic panelized construction methods in architecture.
