3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping .1
Unless you follow medical technology or industrial design and manufacturing journals you will probably not be terribly familiar with these processes (I did not learn about either of these until arch. school). Basically 3D printing is no different than normal printing except that it can move up and down as well as side to side (aka the x,y and now the z). There are various materials that can be printed, most of which are nylon or plastic based, but recently metals and concrete have been tested. There are various different 3D printing machines but most of the work by laying down layers of materials only where they are needed to build an object.
Whats the point you ask? In manufacturing this means rather than milling out or casting parts you can simply print the object in one go. When this is applied to rapid prototyping a lot of material, time, and money can be saved. In the medical industry it can be used to create precise prosthetics, bone replicas, etc.
So why am I studying it? Architects are currently using these machines to print models of your designs. Basically you design a digital model, format it, and press print and a few hours later your model is there in your hands. While this is certainly awesome and something that is revolutionizing the design process in advanced firms it holds much more exciting possibilities.
I have not written much about my studio other than that my professors are part of the Special Modeling Team at Foster + Partners. My professors and many other architectural professionals and researchers have been wondering can this technology be applied to the next scale. How do buildings change if we materials can be printed in any shape? If metals are no longer in sheets, if concrete no longer needs form work, if stone does not need be carved. Its potentially exciting stuff.
These images came from a field trip to one of the largest 3D printing and rapid prototyping research laboratories at Loughborough University near Birmingham. The engineering department there has been working on 3D printing parts for New Balance shoes, Virgin Atlantic Planes, and much more. The most interesting thing here (so interesting we were not allowed to take photos of it) was one of three Concrete printers in the entire world. Concrete printing allows us to form concrete objects without being limited by formwork. Think of the process as a nerd building a drip castle. The day we were visiting they were printing a bench.
If you've read this far it means Ive got you really curious. I cant say much more but here a few sites that can give a little more information
