Transmaterial » digifab

Dukta

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:00:16 +0000

Dukta is a timber forming system that uses precise incisions to impart flexibility. Developed by Christian Kuhn and Serge Lunin, the method allows stiff wood panels to be easily shaped in three dimensions. The near rubbery flexibility is achieved with staggered, regularly arranged incisions. Different cutting options expand the scope of possible applications, and the simple method is suitable for various wood products such as plywood, fiberboard and solid wood. The process may also be applied to plastics and metals with similar effect.

Contact: Dukta, Olten, Switzerland.

3D-Printed Wellboard

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:00:27 +0000

Wellboard is a lightweight, cellulose-based material pressed into a variety of profiles for use in exhibition, shop and furniture design applications. 3D-Printed Wellboard employs an image-transfer process developed by Okalux entitled Okacolor. This innovative printing method allows digital images to maintain their geometrical integrity despite the deformations inherent in the contouring process. The combination of custom digital imagery and specific profiles can generate layered visual effects.

Contact: Well Ausstellungssystem GmbH, Hannover, Germany.
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Raycounting

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:00:59 +0000

Raycounting is a method for generating form by registering the intensity and orientation of light rays. 3D surfaces of double curvature are the result of assigning light parameters to flat planes. Developed by Neri Oxman, the algorithm calculates the intensity, position and direction of one, or multiple, light sources placed in a given environment and assigns local curvature values to each point in space corresponding to the reference plane and the light dimension. The models explore the relation between geometry and light performance from a computational-geometry perspective. Light performance analysis tools are reconstructed programmatically to allow for morphological synthesis based on intensity, frequency and polarization of light parameters as defined by the user.

Contact: MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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Unrepeatable Carpets

Blaine Brownell — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:00:54 +0000

A collaboration between visual artist Marcel Kronenburg and software engineer Marten Teitsma, Unrepeatable Carpets are the result of a process designed to create unique carpet patterns throughout buildings. A reaction against the repetitive monotony of standard carpet tiles, Unrepeatable Carpets apply randomly generated images and patterns to a variety of carpet materials. Custom-designed software runs a computer-controlled carpet printing machine, and this process generates an endless variety of outcomes using a particular decorative pattern. Due to the universal quality of the pattern, however, tiles may still be easily replaced when necessary.

Contact: Carpets for Buildings, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.