May 18, 2015 | By Simon
Historically speaking, Italy has one of the most rich and diverse cultures in the history of design and craftsmanship - thanks in no small part to Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance that began in the 14th century and lasted through to the 16th century.
In more modern times, this high level of craftsmanship has provided the world with everything from iconic cars such as those from Ferrari to the expansive portfolio of high-end home goods from Alessi. Is it now time for the next generation of Italian design? In any case, Italy’s 3DiTALY thinks so. Born out of the Do-It-Yourself concept, 3DiTALY’s mission is to re-evaluate the approach to Italian design and craftsmanship.
After opening the very first 3D printing shop in Italy, which is based in the city of Rome, the company has since grown to become the largest 3D printing retail shop network worldwide with six franchise stores in Italy alone. While the company has previously been focusing on making their retail stores all-in-one hubs for the Maker set including meet spaces, training workshops, 3D printer and accessory sales, 3D scanners and pretty much anything else centered around 3D printing, they are now turning their attention a new direction: furniture design.
3DiTALY co-founder Antonio Alliva showed off the new concept during the Milan Design Week in April. The company’s first foray into furniture design - the “Eggform” line of products - represents all of the core values that the company wants to highlight with their new furniture design direction: make all designs fully customizable, create objects that are larger than most 3D printers allow for and to equip 3D printed plastic items with an inner core.
Created by the company’s Pescara team, the design starts with a 3D scanning process for gathering natural, textured 3D surfaces including leaves and birds using Fuel 3D’s Scanify 3D Scanners . The surfaces are then processed through a customized suite of software before being digitally sculpted into a 3D model that can be exported as a polygonal mesh for 3D printing using PLA filament. For this project in particular, the company used Ultimaker 2 3D printers.
The 3D printed model then becomes the shell of the inner core mold, which can be filled by pouring a variety of materials including lime, gypsum, resin, hemp, sawdust and jute to create large furniture items such as tables, chairs and lamps. The prints can be finished with some additional woodwork or other finishing details and the team is currently experimenting with new additive manufacturing techniques that can change their production process.
While the final Eggform products are currently only being shown as concepts rather than finished products, the use of additive manufacturing technologies highlights just how easy they would be to reproduce.
Find out more about the company over at 3DiTALY.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
Maybe you also like:
- North America's largest 3D print on its way to Vancouver
- Chinese scientists uses 3D printer to print ear
- Stratasys 3D printer supports student built Lunar Rover Prototype for Google Lunar X PRIZE
- Dutch designer Ineke Otte and her 3D printed jewelry
- First 3D printed robot legs move more like human
- Inspiring Exoskeleton 3D-printed shoes
- 3D printed saxophone mouthpiece shown at North Sea Jazz 2012
- 3D printed Golf-In-Miniature: The desktop 18 hole miniature golf course
- Recreating dinosaurs with 3D scanner and 3D printer
- Penn Researchers create vasculature in living tissues with RepRap 3D printer and sugar
Nice renders but that's it
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.
