Academics Use 3D Printing to Rebuild Artifacts Destroyed by ISIS

3D print by RapidMade for Decimate Mesh Art

Since ISIS began destroying priceless artifacts in territory it controls, archaeologists and artists around the world have been scrambling to salvage and, or recreate the objects being annihilated.  Recently RapidMade worked on one of these projects:  Ryan Woodring's Decimate Mesh Art Exhibit.

Closer to the tragedy, in a bold and proactive counter offensive, 

“Archaeologists at Oxford and Harvard have launched a high-tech offensive against Isis by creating a full digital record of threatened ancient sites and artefacts in the Middle East by Islamic State.”

Using 3D cameras, the academics  who've partnered with Unesco, plan to collect millions of digital images that will enable them to capture and reconstruct any piece that is destroyed. Their plan involves positioning "hundreds of the internet-enabled 3D cameras around important sites where they will take full photographic records from several different angles before uploading them to an open-source database online.

Given the wide-scale destruction wrought on the area to date, the project team recognizes that it is literally "up against the gun" to save as many antiquities as it can.

For years, museums like the Smithsonian have been creating digital libraries of their collections to catalog, study and share.  But this effort is one of the first geared specifically to safeguard artifacts from defacement or destruction.

UC Berkeley Powder Prints "Bloom"

Photo Credit: 3DPrint.com

Universities erecting new buildings have become commonplace these days, but UC Berkeley's recent installation of the "first and largest powder-based 3D printed cement structure built to date" made history.

Under the direction of Associate Professor Ronald Rael, graduate students used 11 3D Systems printers, spending more than a year to individually print and assemble 840 "iron oxide-free Portland cement polymer" blocks.  One cool construction feature:  the assembly instructions were printed onto the blocks.  Once completed, the Bloom pavilion towered 9 feet and measured 12 feet by 12 feet.

The structure's design is both functional and aesthetic, yet its formulation may be most noteworthy.  Dr. Rael, with support from the Siam Research and Innovation Co. Ltd., developed the printable cement compound.

“While there are a handful of people currently experimenting with printing 3-D architecture, only a few are looking at 3-D printing with cement-based materials, and all are extruding wet cement through a nozzle to produce rough panels,” Rael said. “We are mixing polymers with cement and fibers to produce very strong, lightweight, high-resolution parts on readily available equipment; it’s a very precise, yet frugal technique. This project is the genesis of a realistic, marketable process with the potential to transform the way we think about building a structure”

Although the resulting structure may be beautiful, durable and lightweight, the production speed doesn't appear to compete with other cement-based printing methods such as the 10 Chinese printed units manufactured by Win Sun which were erected in a single day.

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3D Printing "Silences" Dissention

Soundproofing 3D Print (3Dprint.com)

At RapidMade, there's nothing we enjoy more than designing and printing a creative solution to solve a client's challenge.  So we like to follow stories that describe how 3D printing has improved someone's quality of life...

Noise in multi-unit dwellings is an ongoing source of annoyance.  My daughter and her college suite mates are currently battling their RA about allegations that they make too much noise when they walk.  While an extreme example, most of us can easily think of at least one time when traveling sound created neighborly conflict.

At least one researcher, Foteini Setaki, believes the answer relies on 3D printing custom 

"sound absorbers...  based on a principle called passive destructive interference or PDI. It’s the intimate relationship between geometry and acoustic performance that makes PDI absorbers work, and she uses advanced additive manufacturing techniques to build unique, freeform geometries to test and understand the acoustics underlying the performance of various materials and shapes."

Through these trials, Setaki hopes to apply the lessons learned to engineer sound absorbing barriers that are tailored to specific spaces such as lecture halls and gymnasiums.

Unfortunately, the timing won't solve my daughter's dilemma... maybe a cheap carpet will have to suffice.

3D Printed Bricks Designed to Stand Up to Earthquakes

Photo Credit: Inside 3DP

When I first moved to the Pacific North West, one of the first things I noticed was the lack of brick-based architecture - an obvious nod to life in an Earthquake zone.  But that could someday change... 

According to Inside 3DP, "one California-based architecture firm, Emerging Objects, ...(has) gone back to basics and reinvented the humble brick to create the Quake Column. This appropriately named pillar is manufactured from 3D printed bricks, made from sand using the ancient art of Incan masonry.

Not only can it withstand earthquakes, but the bricks require no cement or mortar to hold them together. This is due to the design of the bricks which interlock, rather like a secure 3D puzzle. Once the bricks have been assembled, they then become earthquake proof as they do not allow any kind of horizontal movement."

Other advantages cited:

• The printed bricks can be marked in a way that ensures accurate assembly even by untrained laborers
• They are hollow but strong, reducing material use and product weight

And if they are made from readily available raw materials, one would hope that the cost to produce them would be low, perhaps much like the 3D printed mud homes being proposed by WASP.

Mortgage Lender Offers Novel 3D Printed Give-Away as Incentive

Image and Article Credit:  3DPrint.com

I remember a time when banks gave away toasters and other items to win customers' business. One notoriously offered firearms!   Adding a new twist to an old idea, the Swiss Bank Zurcher Kantonalbank recently rewarded a mortgage applicant with a 3D print of the customer's home. Using the home's blueprint to create a 3D model, Zurcher Kantonalbank had the model printed into a replica it then mounted on wood with a plague bearing the bank's name.  That's creative and memorable advertising...  And I can understand why the bank might go to such lengths.  Housing in Switzerland is among the most expensive real estate markets in the world.  Maybe this idea will catch on with other lenders and real estate brokers.

Will 3D Printing Replace or Augment Craftsmanship?

Grand Concourse Restaurant:  Photo Credit:  Muer.com

In my hometown of Pittsburgh, there is a beautiful restaurant, the Grand Concourse in Station Square.  It is the site of the former Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Station.  My grandfather was a cabinet maker for the railroad, and my grandmother once told me, years later, that one of his accomplishments was the refurbishment of its ornate ceiling.  A section of the elaborate crown molding, made of marble I believe, had been destroyed.  My grandfather created a replica out of wood which was such a close match, one couldn't pick out the faux molding.  I imagine the hours of labor that went into this important project and wonder how my grandfather would have reacted to our now being able to quickly scan the molding and print a copy overnight.

Many believe that the craftsmanship of that generation has largely been lost, replaced by mass produced materials.  But perhaps 3D printing will spur a high-tech revival.  Access to 3D scanning and additive manufacturing technologies already allow us to re-create artifacts that have been lost to time.   RapidMade often gets requests to replicate facades and other architectural features.  We once printed replacement stove handles for an antique oven.  And now, digital designs and additive manufacturing enable artisans to imagine and create exotic and unique objects that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to be made in my grandfather's time.