MenuThe architectural industry is continually developing creative solutions for our work and living spaces, with increasing investment being made into the regeneration of our town centres, schools, hospitals and recreational areas. Constantly striving to improve design excellence, Architects, Artists and Designers are pushing the boundaries to create inspiring, innovative and increasingly, environmentally friendly, structures, Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a key part of this.
Whilst high-tech design software can provide photo-realistic images, a tactile, 3D model of their proposed design can play a vital role in visualising the concept or securing a tender bid, and can be used as a demonstration piece at promotional events or in marketing photography.
AM is becoming their method of choice when creating a model of their concept or design, as intricate details can be easily replicated and previously ‘impossible’ structures and forms created. Created directly from the 3D CAD data, AM is an extremely cost-effective, quick and accurate process when compared to other more traditional model-making techniques. Parts can be produced up to 1m long, thereby reducing the need for joins and increasing strength and functionality.
Offering high levels of functionality combined with aesthetics, our highly skilled modelmakers and post-processing specialists can generate fully finished models with outstanding paint effects and intricate details such as trees, people, sign posts and vehicles, all supplied in a glass display cabinet.
3D Printing for Oil Rig model
Plastic 3D Printing has created a stunning 1:100 scale model of the Ivar Aasen oil rig platform. Commissioned by Norwegian company Det Norske, it was the centre piece of their stand at the Offshore Northern Seas 2014 annual show held in Stavangar, Norway ...
Titanium Glasses using Metal Additive Manufacturing
Eye Venture Ltd is using 3T’s metal Additive Manufacturing services to produce lightweight frames for their Aviator and Navigator styles in Titanium. Based in New Zealand, they are proud to have them ‘Made in England’ and have a solid partner for their exclusive eyewear range …
Works of art using Plastic AM
Artist Michael Eden uses Plastic Additive Manufacturing to create stunning works of art in a way that was previously impossible. The process enables him to design intricate details into his works, and 3T’s in-house finishing team use their own specialist techniques to colour each piece to an exact RAL colour, with a soft touch mineral coating …
Plastic AM mass production of conference gifts
Demonstrating the true production capability of plastic Additive Manufacturing together with our post-processing capabilities, we built and hand finished 2,500 identical awards in just 19 days, taking a total of 540 hours to build ...
CAD expertise assists art installation
Working with Ron Arad on his “In Reverse” art installation, our in-house CAD services and fast build times enabled the plastic pieces to be built, assembled and shipped within very tight timescales ...
Queen and Crawford – kite flying high with AM
Queen and Crawford is a Design and Fabrication Workshop based in Birmingham, UK who deliver a wide range of projects locally and internationally. They recently returned from installing the latest work of Heather & Ivan Morison in St. Hellier, Jersey; Little Shining Man is a sculpture that has the potential for flight.
Personalisation of Titanium part
The tie clip was built in Titanium on an M280. The M280’s 400 watt laser meant the clip was built faster and with finer detailing than previous DMLS machines.
Designswarm – plastic AM heats up for Utah Teapot
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer & entrepreneur and we recently worked with her on the Utah teapot, which is a standard reference object in the computer graphics community. The complexity of the object lies in the different types of curves that make it up, and therefore make it one of the most difficult objects to learn how to build in 3D.
FutureFactories – Creative Personalisation
Lionel Dean is an Engineer, Designer and Artist at FutureFactories: a digital manufacturing (Rapid Prototyping) concept for the mass individualization of products. In partnership with 3T RPD Ltd, Lionel has taken Philippe Stark's iconic Louis Ghost chair and fitted an alternative back to it, which has been created using the plastic Additive Manufacturing (Selective Laser Sintering) technology at 3T.
Zaha Hadid – accurate architectural model
Zaha Hadid Architects wanted to produce a powerful 3D model over 2m long to give visual impact for presentation purposes of the Guggenheim Museum in Taichung, Taiwan. The proposal was based on the concept of the museum as an ever-changing event space.
