DIGITAL FABRICATION – LAMP – RIBBING

Specifications
Technique : ribbing
Material: methacrylate
Thickness : 3 mm

Design process
To articulate ribbing as an inverse technique as opposed to outward expression.
To attain fluid forms within a rigid geometry

Joinery detail
-insertion
-grooves and notches

The following were our observations:

Material
1. During the laser process, there is loss of material.
2. Loss of material varies with the speed and power used to laser.
3. The size of the sheet also affects the laser process with larger sheets prone to bulging.

Laser cutter machine
1. The slc gave us well cut, clean edged members, along with crisp engraving.
2. The blc settings were harder to control, with the engraving and cutting resulting in cracked edges and murky details despite varying speeds and power settings.

Technique
1. For a 3 mm thick sheet, a groove of 2.8 mm was the snuggest.
2. The methacrylate sheet is not flexible and is prone to cracking and splitting, more so if it is forced into a groove of a smaller size.

Presentation (PDF)

In this project we were working with plexiglass (methacrylate) and we focused on creating a lamp using the technique of ribbing.

We decided to explore the possible different connections between the elements of our lamp and keep the form relatively simple, having the external volume of a cube as abounding box and in its center a sphere that will provide the necessary space for the lamp. The general idea was to increase the complexity of the ribbing technique, using more than two different axises for the planar sections. In the process we realized the bending and breaking limitations of the material and the effect topology of objects has in contouring-ribbing objects.

Cutting surface = 5400 cm2 Material used = 3787,3 cm Waste Material = 1612,7 cm2 (29,86 %)