Digital Fabrication » Furniture

Laser cutted plywood bench

iaac — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:55:39 +0000

This work is a collaboration between Ayber Gülfer and Jordi Portell and describes the design and fabrication process for a laser cutted plywood bench for the Digital Fabrication Tools class.

We wanted our bench to be a node to articulate a sequence, so we bended the box.

Plywood furniture fabrication using model ribbing techniques and laser cutting.

Idea and model

We wanted to design a bench that could be able to articulate a system of different benches and get out
from the straight arrangement giving more flexibility, so we curved our element. We had two different
strategies to do this:

1. cutting the bench in diagonal at the sides preserving the given bounding box.

2. bending the bounding box itself.

We worked in two models following this two strategies and, at the end, we choose the one that we liked the most. This blog entry presents the design following the second strategy and the fabrication process of the design we chose (first strategy). We used Rhino and Grasshopper as modelling and ribbing tools and a laser cutter to fabricate the parts.

Bounding box resulting from revolving the contours forming an angle of approx. 30º.

Modelling the seat and considering to have a floor lamp integrated

Extracting the floor lamp volume from the model with inner shell.

Setting the planes to make transversal cuts determines the ribs separation.

Transversal cutting planes (ribs) from intersection curves.

Ribs in the longitudinal direction. Some pieces had to be cut in order to be assemblable.

Both x and y rib systems together and ready for intersection.

Final result for the design strategy 2 (bending the box).

Fabrication

We choose the model produced following strategy 1. not for the strategy itself but because of the more elegant asymmetrical design and better level of development.

Final result for strategy 1. Cutting edges in diagonal preserving the original bounding box.

Backside of the bench selected for fabrication. Some ribs were divided before fabrication.

Cutting with the big laser cutter at IaaC.

Assembling the numbered pieces.

The Table Bench

iaac — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 02:57:59 +0000

To think about a bench is to think about several people. And several uses. Some people read, others sleep, some sit and some eat. Sometimes it’s just good to be able to do it all. For the IaaCommunity Bench, we decided to keep it simple and keep it working. A table bench. As the section of the bench was predefined to enable the different proposals to connect, we started by defining that the top of the bench would be flat and the bottom would look like… a bench! The editing process begun by creating a cage with the command CageEdit>Select the Bench>BoundingBox> x=15, y=10, z=4. With the Control Points on, we repositioned the points so we could have the form imagined by us. After the form was defined, we needed to close the interior surface using the command Curve> Curve From Objects> Duplicate Edges. Then to create a surface and finally close the bench, we used the command Loft.

The next step was to use command Contour to create sections of the object in X and Y axis. For that, we created new layers, one for each axe. After creating the “ribs”, we created a new layer called “Intersections”, and used the command “Intersections” to create lines in the intersections between the ribs in X and Y axis. Those lines were used as guidelines to create pipes at the intersections between the ribs.

Using a Grasshopper script we chose ribs on the x-axis, the y-axis and the intersections lines in order to be faster instead of copying and moving each pipe one-by-one manually. After the intersections had been made, we baked the axis individually and grouped each rib by using the TOP view and selecting each line separately.

After we mdke a new layer called DOT, we used the Dot command to name each rib and group it with it’s piece so we would be able to move them around without getting the order of construction lost. We then rotated the ribs so they could be in the same direction. We trimmed each section in order to get the connection edges. Finally we used another script to engrave the numbers and our name in the pieces under a new layer.

To finish the process we deleted the previous layer DOT and drew a rectangle with the dimensions of the wooden board (1200×2500) under a layer Wood. We manually placed each rib on this plane in order to make the most efficient placement and the less use of materials. Finally we created a layer Cut and renamed all the ribs on that layer. The file was then ready to be exported as a .dxf format.

“Bench” MODEL and Laser Cuttering

maria carolina aguirre arteaga — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:20:08 +0000

by Carolina Aguirre/Carolina Miro

The second assignment required decomposing the 3D design of a piece of furniture, into 2D elements to laser cut them as its pieces. It was also important to consider that the model would be part of a fluid whole later on, so it had to respect the limits given for it and the shape of its initial and final faces.

Resuming the design process, it was developed inside the boundaries given and taking advantage of some free space to give it some movement through the invisible cage. Then, the its top was modified by using control points to give it some flatness that would allow it to be useful as a confortable bench.
The result was a dynamic element which provided excellent prospects for successful fabrication as also its integration with the other designs.

With the design already completed, the 3D model was modified to be produced using the laser-cutting machine. The surface of the design was offset and contours were created. Intersecting surfaces were made from these contours and cilinders where placed on them, which were later trimmed to create voids in the elements in order to be able to join the pieces. The intersection slots were made to be 2.8mm wide, creating a snug fit for the mounted panels. Finally, the various pieces needed to be separated and projected, side by side, onto a cplane which had the same dimensions as the wooden panel to be placed in the laser cutter.

Once the 3D design had been translated into the 2D layout, its file was exported to the laser cutter. A 3mm thick wooden plank was cut into the various waffle pieces. The cutting process was closely monitored in order to comply with the necessary safety precautions, such as ensuring that the cut pieces didn’t obstruct the machine while it was still in progress and of course to control a possible fire.

After the pieces were cut successfully and without any incidences, they were assembled to be part of the final product.