Digital Fabrication » Milling Machine

reinFORCED

agajz — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 23:12:13 +0000

The design idea used to create the tile was a method of force fields. In creating this seamless pattern multiple spin forces were merged together and the effect of field lines was extended for better visualization and incorporation into the water evacuation system.

Force fields working with a different set of constraining circles.

Every line of the system is represented as an “escaping” curve. Each point tries to get away from the force field quickly, leaving those paths behind and creating the data tree structure. By playing with parameters like length, force, radius, distance in between, we could create a controlled distortion according to these field lines and force center.

Water evacuation tangencies meet force fields

The tile is divided into 3 parts according to the water evacuation points on the external edges: 2, 3 and 4. The force fields were placed accordingly on splines starting from these points of reference.

Overall composition of 6 tiles

The slope of the tile decreases gradually outwards following the rhythm of the water canals and pattern, enhancing the water evacuation.

The reference for the picture and original grasshopper script is: http://www.designcoding.net/force-fields-revisited/

Our edited grasshopper definition

To discover our milling strategy we experimented repeatedly with RhinoCam. In the end, for our design, we selected the 12 mm ballmill as it gave us the optimal finish and kept our machining time within the 2 hour limit. We first ran a horizontal roughing to carve the canals then curve machining to overlay the thin contour lines. In the end we didn’t do a perimiter engraving in order to allow for continuity of the lines over the edge and side of the tiles.

RhinoCam simulation strategy

Topography Faces

Ricardo Perez Borbolla — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 22:03:11 +0000

As the purpose of the exercise was to create tile pieces to cover the school’s patio floor, we decide to create an image concept to represent what we think is the essence of the school and the advance architecture at Iaac: The students.

That’s why we decide to create “Topography Faces”, a trilateral symmetry design that represent thinkers of the new architecture.

With 3 diferentes face designs in 3 different corners of the tile, the design becomes a complex pattern formed by the rotation of the title to match with the next face and finally forming a topographical surface for water flow.

Underwater

Luca Gamberini — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:39:51 +0000

The exploration of the natural forms in the Catalan Modernism has been conceived with the water. In this tile the flow becomes both form and function. The organic form and natural topography seem to be the results of the natural shaping process the sea water produces by touching upon the sand bed. The topography of the tile represents the dualism between liquid and solid: what was once a product of the water flow now is the pathway which drives the water to some constrained estuaries. Tile by tile the continuos and smooth submarine environment takes form within the water and sand.

The milling process has been evaluated with three different ballmills: a 12 mm diameter one to remove material, a 6 mm one diameter to mill the designed shape and a 3 mm ballmill to finish the outputs.

Once the mold was finished we applied 4 coats of sealer and let it dry. Then we applied a layer of vaseline so that the cement did not stick into the mold. Next step was to pour a mixture of cement, water and additives. The mixture dried for 8 hours. After taking the piece out of the mold, the surface has been cleaned out of the vaseline and the oil has been applied to uniform the finishing.

To be continued… (once we have more tiles)