Transmaterial » digifab

Laser-Sintered Textiles

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:00:51 +0000

Laser-Sintered Textiles, based on a concept by designer Jiri Evenhuis, have opened a new frontier of possibilities for the production of future textiles. Instead of creating textiles by the meter, then cutting and sewing them together into final products, Laser-Sintered Textiles could one day make needle and thread obsolete.

After several years of research in software, materials, and surface quality, Freedom of Creation (FOC) launched its first commercial products for the public in 2005. Since there were no machines made specifically for manufacturing interlocking textile patterns by layers, FOC employed rapidmanufacturing techniques such as laser sintering for their manufacture. FOC’s textile products don’t require any assembly and products may be made inside their own packaging.

Contact: Feedom of Creation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Find more information in Transmaterial 3.

Monocoque

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:00:21 +0000

Monocoque stands for a construction technique that supports structural load using an object’s external skin. Contradictory to the traditional design of building skins that distinguishes between internal structural frameworks and non-bearing skin elements, this approach promotes the heterogeneity of material properties.

Monocoque’s structural skin is generated using a Voronoi pattern, the density of which corresponds to simulated loading conditions. The distribution of shear-stress lines and surface pressure is embodied in the allocation and relative thickness of the vein-like elements built into the skin. The prototype model was 3-D printed using OBJET’s Polyjet matrix technology which allows for the assignment of structural properties to multiple 3-D printed substances. This innovative technology provides for the ability to print parts and assemblies made of multiple materials within a single build, as well as to create composite materials that present preset combinations of mechanical properties.

Contact: MIT Media Laboratory / Material Ecology, Boston, MA, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial 3.

Cartesian Wax

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:29 +0000

Cartesian Wax is a continuous tiling system that structurally varies across its surface area to accommodate a range of physical conditions of light transmission, heat flux, and structural support. The surface is thicker where it is structurally required to support itself, and modulates its transparency according to the light conditions of its hosting environment.

Architect and digital fabrication researcher Neri Oxman assembled twenty tiles as a continuum composed of multiple resin types—rigid and/or flexible. She designed each tile as a structural composite representing the local performance criteria as manifested in the mixtures of liquid resin.

Contact: Material Ecology, Boston, MA, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial 3.

Recursive Pattern Process

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:06 +0000

Materials produced in modular units based on traditional industrial practices are inevitably confined to predictable, repeating patterns. A common example is the carpet tile, in which repeating patterns emerge despite the frequent desire for an evolving, nonrepetitive effect. StudioStampa is dedicated to changing common perceptions about patterns. The company’s design concept is based on creating an evolving, nonperiodic pattern that is in a constant state of permutation, thereby eliminating pattern predictability.

Using nature as their model, StudioStampa generates surface patterns that closely emulate the beauty of constant, ordered change occurring in the physical world. Their recursive patterns are generated by custom-developed software tools, and these patterns are utilized to manipulate a variety of materials for use in interior and exterior applications.

Contact: StudiosStampa Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada.
Find more information in Transmaterial 2.

Lamina 1.0

Blaine Brownell — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:17:31 +0000

Designed by Paul Haeberli, Lamina 1.0 software facilitates the fabrication of large-scale free-form structures from planar materials like plastic, metal, or plywood. This fabrication technology can be applied to interior design, architecture, lighting, signage, and sculpture.

Lamina 1.0 uses a computer process to build precise physical structures. A user’s 3D model is approximated by a number of 2D parts that are numerically cut and attached to fabricate the final structure. Laser-cutting, abrasive waterjet-cutting and plasma-cutting services are widely available and make creating parts inexpensive and fast.

This software accounts for the physical behavior of planar materials and uses the material thickness to inset the edges of cutting paths to make parts that fit together with precision. Where parts join at right angles, the inset for an edge to edge joint is half the material thickness. The angle between parts is also taken into consideration when generating cutting path insets; thus, the join angle and the appropriate inset may vary along edges. A demo version of the program can be downloaded from the web site.

Contact: Lamina Design, Madison, WI, USA.
Find more information in Transmaterial.

Dimple Halftone

Blaine Brownell — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:40:28 +0000

Dimple Halftone is a new process intended to create a microlandscape of texture that, when viewed at different distances, can be recognized as a sharp image or abstract pattern. A reminder of the enlarged halftone canvases of the Pop Art era, Dimple Halftone actually encodes dots into the surfaces of various materials at even larger scales.

Developed by 4-pli and Associated Fabrication, this process allows designers to transfer images or patterns to medium-density fiberboard (MDF) laminate panels, sound-absorbant panels, and solid surface materials like Corian. Designers can simply supply an image with a specified size and resolution for either a one- or two-color surface.

In addition to its imagery and pattern effects, Dimple Halftone can be used to add calibrated performance characteristics to materials, such as nonslip and sound-absorbing surfaces.

Contact: Associated Fabrication, Brooklyn, NY.
Find more information in Transmaterial 2.

XURF Systems

Blaine Brownell — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:35:00 +0000

XURF (EXpandable SURFaces) Systems generates continuously morphable curved surfaces. Inspired by biological membranes, the resulting surfaces are rigid yet pliable and are able to respond to a variety of surfacing needs. Developed by Milgo/Bufkin, XURF allows the transformation of any flatsheet material into a three-dimensionally curved surface and can accomplish compound curvature with relative ease. Applications include interior and exterior architectural surfaces, structures, sculpture, and a variety of design products. Milgo/Bufkin has developed prototypes primarily using steel, which range from containers and lamps to structural ceiling and wall systems.

Contact: Milgo/Bufkin, Brooklyn, NY.
Find more information in Transmaterial 2.

Erwin Hauer Continua

Blaine Brownell — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:46:00 +0000

Erwin Hauer Continua is a series of designs for perforated and light-diffusing architectural surfaces. Originally developed in 1950, Continua screens were made of masonry materials painstakingly cast in complex molds. With the advent of current digital fabrication technologies, Continua screens are now easier to fabricate and mass produce, and Erwin Hauer’s sensual, multidimensional shapes may now be realized in a variety of materials.

Developed in cooperation with Enrique Rosado, Continua screens are available in CNC-cut medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and stone, as well as precast concrete and high-strength gypsum cement. Panels may be shop-fabricated up to 4 x 8 feet (1.2 x 2.4 meters), and larger sizes must be assembled on site.

Contact: EHR Design Associates LLC, New Haven, CT.
Find more information in Transmaterial 2.

Backlight Images

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:29:00 +0000

Backlight Images are three-dimensional solid-surface topographies created from digital images. Developed and manufactured by the R. D. Wing Company, the Backlight Image process transforms user-provided images into reliefs within the surface of 1/4-inch-thick, translucent DuPont Corian. The images are first converted to grayscale mode with 256 shades, and each shade effectively becomes a different height of contour.

Unlike other digitally fabricated products that utilize the relief surface as the viewing surface, Backlight Images are sculpted from the reverse side. Only when light is transmitted from behind does the image emerge through the material.

Backlight Images may be created from photographs, logos, or other graphic content. Once images are produced, they can be thermoformed to create sculptural objects and curved surfaces. Backlight Images may also be colored using theatrical studio film and can match Kodak PMS or Pantone designated colors.

Contact: Backlight Images, Kirkland, WA.
Find more information in Transmaterial 2.

Voiceprints

Blaine Brownell — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 05:11:00 +0000

Voiceprints is an experiment in the translation of audio information to visual imagery. Artist Pierre Proske records a person’s voice into a microphone, analyzes the audio file for frequency content, loops the sample, and then generates a variety of textile patterns arranged according to the individual’s vocal frequency imprint.

The basic acoustic unit in human speech is called a phoneme. The visual equivalent is called a “viseme,” a basic speech unit in the visual domain. Interested in the audio to visual translation, Proske developed software that describes sound using basic visual units to represent recorded frequencies.

Proske reminds us that the use of computing in textile design is nothing new. Woven textiles actually form part of computing history, through Joseph Marie Jacquard’s automated patterned textile weaving machine in 1804 which led to the use of punch cards in computing devices.

Contact: Pierre Proske, Melbourne, Australia.