Sep 29, 2014 | By Alec
In the cool experimental project 'Vindplaats Delft' (Discovery site Delft) a group of students from the Technical University Delft teamed up with Dutch Artist Maaike Roozenburg to recreate a few pieces of Dutch history using the latest 3D technology.
While the bulk of the work took place a few years ago now, this interesting project not only combines additive manufacturing with traditional pottery, but also really highlights the difficulties that accompany the recreation of these precious and historical objects.
The project was initiated by artist Maaike Roozenburg, who wanted to create replicas of 17th century glassware from the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum. This way, people can bring these centuries-old objects into their own homes, that they would otherwise only be able to see behind a glass screen in a museum.
To achieve this, she teamed up with a group of industrial design students who were working on an Advanced Prototyping course, and they handled the high-tech scanning and printing processes involved. They kept an interesting blog full of the failures, innovations and decisions that involve a typical 3D scanning and printing project. As they explained at the onset of the project:
Delft is more than 750 years old. The city owes its name to the world 'delving', digging the oldest canal, the Oude Delft (dug in 1100). As early as 1355 the city reached the size it would remain until the 19th century. The glass objects were found on locations like the Oude Delft and the Pieterstraat. Designer Maaike Roozenburg wants to use these pre-industrial cups with a rich history as a starting point for a new design. This way the old heritage can be used for daily use.
These porcelain replicas were based on two glasses from the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum and another two from the Heritage Delft Collection. All of them have been recently excavated in Delft's historical city center. Creating copies of them was an extremely arduous and delicate process, as all are very fragile and strictly labeled as 'do not touch'.
Somewhat unusually, the team was therefore required to utilize a medical CT-scanner formerly used in a French hospital to develop 3D renderings of the delicate objects. The DICOM files this scanner generated were then painstakingly converted to STL files that could be printed. Rhinoceros 4 software was used to work with the 3D renderings, which needed extensive meshing and numerous touch-ups before printable scans were realized.
The cups were 3D-printed with different printing techniques and materials, to see what gave the best result. The team originally wanted to focus on plaster printing, but the results were disappointing. Sadly, they did not report on the specific printer or type of material used, but their printed molds did turn out to be too brittle and unable to handle the moisture. They finally settled on a creative solution: their plaster prints were coated in candle wax to give them the rigidity needed.
These printed objects were finally used by Roozenberg as molds for the final, traditional manufacturing phase. This resulted in beautiful porcelain castings that recreated these centuries-old pieces of glassware. They can be found in her web store here.
While not the most technologically advanced project, the 'Vindplaats Delft' project does really show the artistic possibilities that 3D scanning and printing brings to the table. It demonstrates how modern printing techniques are everything but stand-alone technology, but can instead easily interact with local heritage and traditional manufacturing to create new and exciting objects. Check it out! Also be sure to visit the artist's website.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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