petebooth[iaac]

The 3d printed object sat within a 6×6x6cm cube. The bell consists of a cylindrical outer and a contoured inner surface, while the horn is held in place by the connection pipes. The bell and pipes could have been much tinner, possibly 2mm. This would have created a much greater elegance within the object. I guess that is why hindsight is a wonderful thing!

The fabrication process consists of sending a STL file to the printing software, which in turn sends the file to the 3D printer. While modeling inside rhino it is important that all the faces are pointing the same way, thankfully as my model comprised of completely closed surfaces.
The printing process is a long and slow on, printing approximately 0.1mm of powder per layer, followed by a layer of glue. A 60mm hich object consists of about 600 layer of powder. once printing and drying is complete, the model needs to be ‘excavated’ from the print bed. Using a fine brush, the loose powder was removed from print. Once completely clean of powder the model needs to be sealed externally with glue to strengthen the form.

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