3D printed outdoor lamp scale models, an introduction and development
3D printed of outdoor lamps for Viabizzuno represented an interesting challenge for CRP Technology, for the feasibility of the project and for the recognition of the most suitable material capable of satisfying the customer’s needs: excellent aesthetic result together with excellent performance in terms of strength, wear resistance, flexibility, lightweight .
“Create a panel with all the outdoor light prototypes reproduced on scale and accurately”. This was the project brief that Mario Nanni, founder and designer of Viabizzuno, entrusted to CRP Technology in February 2009. In fact, outdoor light lamps constitute a growing sector within the Viabizzuno product range, but due to their size they are difficult to present in a “three-dimensional” way at exhibitions, events and in stores.
In the initial phase of the project Viabizzuno involved CRP Technology in the development of the idea and in the definition of the right scale reduction of the models, in order to best matching with the technology chosen for the manufacturing of the models: Professional 3D printing L-PBF with polymers. Only by using this process would it have been possible to quickly manufacture as many as 75 parts of different shapes and sizes, without any tools.
Since 1996, among the first in Europe, CRP Technology has offered the professional 3D printing service with their Windform composite materials.
For this project, the 3D printing material par excellence was used, Windform XT, with unique technical and mechanical characteristics and an easily polishable surface, capable of reproducing complex details and minimum thicknesses.
The dimensions of the prototypes of the “ombre” project range from a minimum thickness of 0.8 mm up to a height of 1500 mm for the largest of the outdoor light poles (real height: 15 m). With regard to the surface finish, after an initial hypothesis of painting the models, it was preferred to leave the matt black color that the carbon fibers give to the Windform XT: a choice that communicates the technicality of the material and that goes well with the sober and minimal Viabizzuno style.
Today the prototypes are a real working tool for architects and designers to support them in their daily activity, not only in the creation of aesthetic models, but also for functional models and assembly tests. Once the first 3D CAD files were received from Viabizzuno, CRP was able to create the first samples in a few days to be used during a second meeting with the Viabizzuno staff. Having overcome an initial diffidence in handling the small lamppost scale models, Mario Nanni appreciates the uncommon bending stiffness of the Windform XT material and performs an instinctive gesture: he leans the base of the lamppost against the wall and observes its shadow.
This is how the “ombre” project was born: lights by night, architecture by day. Viabizzuno outdoor lamps are composed in a panel as sculptural sources of cast shadows: they are their shadows under the sunlight.
The project
CRP Technology accepts the challenge and thus begins “a project within the project”: the 1:10 scale models will have to be fixed to a mobile vertical panel, and will have to be assembled and disassembled easily. All the 3D files are processed by the CRP Technical Office, in particular the volumes are emptied to reduce the weight of the prototype models and a structure is set up at the base of each lamp prototypes which will house the wall fitting system. Lamp prototypes longer than 400 mm are split off in several parts, to fit within the job volume of the sinter stations, and then reassembled accurately thanks to “bayonet joints”.
To reveal the amount and quality of the work carried out by CRP Technology, the problems of two very different scale models are explained below: the “lilia” street lamp and the pole called “termometro di luce” (“light thermometer”).
"Lilia" 1:10 scale model
The 1:10 scale prototype of “lilia” street lamp is over 450 mm long and has a diameter of just 5 mm. It also has a 3 mm diameter hole at the base, intended to house an M3 threaded insert.
Before proceeding with the manufacturing of the part, it was considered appropriate to predict through a FEM finite element simulation:
- the real bending of the scale model;
- the maximum tension that the Windform XT model should have supported, once hung perpendicular to the wall
The CAD model has been processed to obtain an extremely detailed tetrahedral mesh; then the constraints (which simulate the fixing to the wall) and the forces (which reproduce the effect of the force of gravity) have been attributed to the mesh.
The maximum value obtained from the FEM simulation was much lower than the tensile strength of Windorm XT material (77.8 Mpa), so the static verification showed that the 3D printed model in XT can easily bend under the effect of its own weight, without breaking.
The customer also requested, as a second verification, the calculation of the bending of the scale model, to prevent the aesthetic performance of the model from being penalised. Approximately 6 mm of maximum displacement have been identified, considered tolerable given the 452 mm of total length of the 3D printed lamp post.
"Termometro di luce" 1:10 scale model
The lightpole called “termometro di luce” (“light thermometer”) is a 15 m high luminous sculpture, made with resin shells mounted on a metal core, which houses, in addition to the projectors, an internal LED system capable of coloring the pole itself, communicating to passers-by climatic variations (temperature, rain, wind, etc.).
The 1:10 scale mode in Windform, while not hosting the light sources, should have reflected the real model in the proportions, details and divisions (on oblique planes) of the 4 superimposed resin elements. Given the size of the prototype in scale (total height 1500 mm), the CRP Technology technicians intervened on the 3D CAD files in order to:
- disassemble modules longer than 400 mm into sub-parts;
- empty all the elements to reduce weight, construction time and cost;
- devise a fast and error-proof fitting system for the 4 main modules;
- provide an internal support core in aluminum alloy on which to stack the modules, so that the scale model of the “termometro di luce ” could be easily transported and durable over time.
The following images show the result of this part of the project.
Timeline summary for the realization of the project and the production of prototypes
After a series of meetings needed to define the project, Viabizzuno delivered the updated list of codes to be produced and the definitive 3D CAD files to CRP Technology at the end of March 2009. In just 10 working days, the CRP Technical Office and the 3D printing department have respectively processed the files and created the 1:10 scale models in Windform XT.
The CRP staff also assisted Mario Nanni and the Viabizzuno technicians during the composition of the panel which took place on 21 April.
Presentation of the “ombre” installation
On the occasion of the 2009 Fuori Salone, the “ombre” project was presented in the new traveling showroom “Via…ggiando per costruirsi”, a highly technological vehicle that Viabizzuno will use in numerous cultural events around the world.
In keeping with the transformability of the stand, the 1:10 scale lighting lamps made by CRP Technology were installed on a sliding wall and on a retractable panel, and were illuminated with a light capable of generating diagonally elongated shadows. Stems, poles, volumes and materials as in a forest; this vision of volumes as architectural and natural elements has been studied as a small-scale compositional urban work.
Conclusions and future developments
The project born in collaboration with Viabizzuno represents a significant work, with which CRP Technology was able to demonstrate how the know-how developed in a high-performance sector such as Motorsport is able to overcome the barriers of the various application fields.
The high quality of the prototypes produced together with the speed of execution led Viabizzuno to consider the opportunity of duplicating the model on a 1:10 scale for all the directly managed stores so that the installation, once it caught the attention of the observer, become a true shared working tool.