April 3, 2013
We've all seen these coolest 3D printed speakers before: designed by a team at Autodesk and 3D printed on an Objet Connex 500, these speakers were then endowed with an audioreactive LED system by new LED startup LumiGeek.
For demonstrating the potential of 3D printers Maurice Conti, Arthur Harsuvanakit and Evan Atherton from Autodesk came up with the idea of making a set of cool, unique and useful speakers. They wanted to create something functional that could only be created by 3D printing.
These speakers are composed of two components: flexible rubber base and clear crystal-like protrusions. The clear crystals are held in place by the rubber base, which helps to reduce the resonance in the case from the speaker.
The 3D model of crystal form was designed using Autodesk 3ds Max and export as a .STL (StereoLitho) file. Using the Autodesk Labs plugin Mesh Enabler for Autodesk Inventor, the .STL mesh was then converted into a solid model.
The speaker enclosure was 3D printed on an Objet Connex 500 3D printer by Stratasys which can fabricate multiple items of different materials. The rubber base was printed using rubber-like material TangoBlack Plus, and simultaneously the crystals were printed using Vero Clear. Total printing time was around 40 hours.
Then LED strips were added inside each speaker. Built by LumiGeek founder John Parts Taylor and JoeJoe Martin these LED strips are controllable through an iPad app, and are audio responsive.
Watch the video below the audio reactivity test of the 3D printed LED speakers.
Using the Topology tool in 3ds Max you can also design speakers in other patterns and shapes.
(Images credit: Autodesk team)
This project was an exploration of how to use digital design tools and 3D printing to create unique objects. Evan Atherton created an Instructable here so you can follow his steps to make your own design.
Posted in 3D Printers
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this looks amazing
Scott Sheppard wrote at 4/4/2013 4:21:26 PM:
Thanks for helping to spread the word.