Jan 17, 2015 | By Simon
It comes with little surprise that among those who have taken to adopting 3D printing into their arsenal of tools include those whose jobs and passions lie in both discovering and preserving historical artifacts.
While seeing actual historical items up-close is one thing, being able to replicate them for touching in-person brings an entirely different dimension to experience objects that are otherwise locked behind a case. Museums such as the Smithsonian have taken to preserving entire collections through 3D scanning while simultaneously allowing anybody to download and 3D print objects from their collections...including those who might be thousands of miles away.
Recently, it was announced that a team of engineers from Cardiff University’s School of Engineering in Wales, along with the Snowdonia National Park Authority and National Museum Wales partnered up to recreate a chair designed by Eugeen Vanfleteren as part of a series of events to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War .
The Gadair Ddu or ‘Black Chair’, was won by celebrated Welsh poet Hedd Wyn, however he was tragically killed during the First World War before he was able to accept it. In his honor, the chair was honored posthumously with a black drape over it...hence the name ‘Black Chair’.
"Hedd Wyn is one of Wales’ most celebrated and influential poets,” said Wales’ First Minister Carwyn Jones.
"As we commemorate one hundred years since the outbreak of the First World War, the Gadair Ddu [Black Chair] has become a symbol of the devastating impact the Great War had on communities and families across Wales, many of who lost fathers, brothers, uncles and sons to the conflict.”
In honor of Hedd Wyn, the engineers from Cardiff University’s School of Engineering will use 3D scanning to produce a 3D model of the chair - which is currently being kept at Hedd Wyn’s family farm house in the Snowdonia National Park - and then replicate it in full-scale using 3D printing.
Rather than modeling the chair, 3D scanning was chosen due to the high level of design elements incorporated into the chair, which the team wants to keep as accurate as possible to the actual design. To reproduce the chair as a 1:1 replica, the engineering team broke the 3Dcmodel up into 20 large parts, which were then sent to Drumlord Ltd, a 3D printing consultancy in Abercarn to be completed and assembled into a final and finished chair replica.
"This was a wonderful project to work on and allowed us to show how the very latest technologies can be combined with already well established, traditional techniques to deliver top quality models,” said Rob Aldridge, Managing Director of Drumlord, Ltd.
“The original chair is very much a part of the cultural history of Wales and the reproduction is a reverential nod to a rich and important past while also looking firmly at the future."
Once assembled, the chair was painted a light color to highlight the level of detail in the wood carving. Once finished, the color was able to highlight details so accurately that it even showed the wear and tear of the chair after having over 100 years of use.
"[We are] delighted that the combination of collaborative working and high value manufacturing technologies in Wales has been able to shine a new light upon one of the most poignant stories of the First World War,” said Cardiff University School of Engineering Director Phil Bowen.
"Since the mid-1990s the Additive Manufacturing Laboratories at Cardiff University School of Engineering have generated a fantastic research and development reputation in what is now often referred to as 3D printing technologies working on components going into space with the Ariane rocket family, on the F1 race track, as well as for deep-sea submarine applications,” he continued.
"Through the vision of the partners and the expert execution of our additive layer manufacturing team, co-working with Drumlord Ltd, I believe that we have been able to do justice to the outstanding visual and technical achievement of the maker of the original Y Gadair Ddu (the Black Chair), Eugeen Vanfleteren."
The Black Chair will soon be embarking on an extended tour of the UK and Europe and will appear at many events that commemorate the First World War before taking up its residency at St. Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
Maybe you also like:
- This 3d printed vase is actually a fully-functional vacuum cleaner
- The $199 Cobblebot Little Monster is a wallet-friendly desktop 3D printer
- Patient 3D prints his own kidney to aid his doctors in operating on him
- French students create fully-functional and open source scientific calculator
- Bollywood King Shah Rukh Khan honored with a life size 3D print in his signature pose
- Fashion stylist teaches himself 3D printing in one year to create 3D printed dress design
- Israeli engineer builds bio-inspired 3D printed hexapod robots Billy and Charlie
- Design Lab Workshop merges 3D printing with solar energy for glowing architecture
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
