Objective:

The third segment in the digital fabrication class is Milling.  Milling is “the machining process of using rotary cutters to remove material.” (wikipedia) Milling is a tool that has a variety of options and can be used on multiple scales.  Inspired by the city and the architecture of Barcelona, the prompt for the milling machine exercise was to design a hexagonal tile, 40mm deep with 144mm sides.  Constraints for the top face of the tile allowed students to explore variations in the depth up to 7mm.

3D Model + RhinoCam:

Students were encouraged to create a topography for the movement of water through a network of tiles. Each group’s tile had specific geometrical edge conditions where their tile would connect to their neighbours via the flow of water. Since each tile would be replicated, and each pair of edges had their own inlet/outlet parameters, it was important to trisect the hexagon to achieve cohesion within a set of 7 (of their own) tiles as well as within a tile network.

Inspiration

Fractal like shapes, reflectional symmetry, rotational symmetry, and self-similarity and the finite subdivision rule drove our initial design.  Recursive subdivision is something that is widely used in tile making and milling but we wanted to tell a different story.  Our group is comprised of engineers and architects and exploring “advanced” topics recently we have been exposed to and are interested in electronics.

Printed Circuit boards (PCB) have been around since the 1850’s, metal rods connected large components mounted on wooden bases.   Circuit boards are in all electronics and some of the most used components and have been around since the 1920’s.  The first circuit boards were hand soldered, and the movement of the wire is that of “sweeping curves” denoting freehand design.  Today, circuit boards are rectilinear, and “printed” on the surface on insulating boards. There are single-double-and multi layered boards made up of layers of printed circuits.  The components are connected through plated and drilled holes to the appropriate circuit layer.  This adds greater circuit simplicity and a beautiful geometry.  Each board is unique, printed for its function and designed to perform each function within an allotted space.Our tile reflects the evolution of the circuit board.

Physical Model

Made from a high density polyurethane foam,Made from  50mm thick high density polyurethane foam the  single mould was created using CNC Milling machine. Three different ball machines were used i.e. 3mm ball mill , 6mm  ball mill , 12mm ball mill for creating different finishes . The mould was then applied with 4 coats of sealant at the time gap of every 20 min and let to dry completely. Once the sealant was dried out completely , a layer of Vaseline was applied to prevent the cement block from getting stuck to the foam.The next step was to pour the concrete mix with proportion of  800ml of cement , 2400 ml of aggregate and 480 ml of water and 100ml of accelerator and dry for 12 hours. The tile was then taken out and allowed to set for next few hours. The process was repeated and a total of 5 tiles were casted. The concrete tile was further processed with hot water to remove the vaseline and oil was applied to give a polished finish.

The principal goal of the project was to design an dynamic and transfiguring structure . The concept was to design joints which would allow parts of the structure to move, without reducing the overall structural integrity. The capability of motion using the joints was explored trying to enhance the aesthetic qualities.

Our thought process was to design a joint, which had the capability of motion of half circle to move within itself and transfigure into an variant structure .The initial study was to investigate the diverse resultant motion of  joint. The joint designed was an spwith slits with the other rods fitted in allowing  it to rotate on its axis at 180 degrees by taking advantage of the 3D printing technology .The bending properties of the pipe was explored and transforming the structure from a tower to swirling circular form. The 3D printing technology gave the opportunity to explore joints which resulted  in dynamic and kinectic changes in the form of the structure. Thus allowing the structure to transform from a tower to swirling circular form using rolling joints.

The design of our tower was driven by several criteria: || maximization of material usage
|| repetition of a single member
|| achieving of several possible configurations

As a result of a successful implementation of the first and the second criteria, we were able to make use of 97% of the available material, consequently reaching the height of nearly 5 meters in the virtual model simulation. Nevertheless, the height of the virtual model was modeled in the “perfect world” conditions, thus not reflecting such important physical criteria as material stress capabilities and the vertical load distribution in a structure of this type. Having assembled several sections of the tower into their envisioned arrangement, we confirmed that such material as wood fails in direct correlation with the grain its cut along and the amount of stress it experiences in the thinnest joinery areas. We realized that in order to reduce the stress||strain loads in our tower we need to drastically reduce the total height of the structure and hence tackle the third design criteria, multiple configurations using a repetitive single element.

The base unit of the structure is a slightly curved uniform strip of wood that interlocks with two more identical elements to form a stiff, yet elegant triangle. Further mirrored upwards the newly formed two triangles visually mimic an “expanded metal” element, and are connected via cross-joints in the center and longitudinal joint at the vertices of the triangle. Once unified into one and rotated 30 degrees the units begin locking into each other, thus reinforcing the overall structure of the tower. Lastly, to break the uniform look of the structure we introduced the “turning torso” movement, physically rotating one third of the overall tower height by 15 degrees at each joint.

95 % use of material

Top View

Assembling pieces to form a triangle || 2 triangle form one unit || 2 units joined by cross joints

Scale Comparison

STOPMOTION