Feb 15, 2016 | By Kira
A royal blue, 4.2-meter-tall lion has appeared at the entrance of Lyon’s Parc Olympique, the 186-seat stadium for its famed football club, Olympique Lyonnais. The majestic, 3D printed lion is just one of four mascots that will soon be produced by local startup Drawn, using its large-format industrial 3D printer, the Galatea. The following three lions, to be painted, red, white, and gold (Olympique Lyonnais' team colors), are expected to be completed between now and April, and will serve as the ultimate symbols of team spirit and the power of local manufacturing.
Each 3D printed lion will measure 4.2 meters high, 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and weigh in at 1500 kg (1.6 tons). This requires a significant amount of time and material, but it is precisely what makes additive manufacturing the perfect method for the job. As Sylvain Charpiot, founder of Drawn, explains, with 3D printing, there is no material waste and everything can be made locally. Drawn’s manufacturing studio, is, in fact, located just 10 kilometers from the stadium, and even his material suppliers are located in Rhône-Alpes.
The first lion alone took roughly 500 hours to 3D print over 20 days of non-stop production using the robotic arm-based Galatea 3D printer, plus another 600 hours of finishing and assembly. Despite the machine’s ability to 3D print large objects such as ready-made furniture, each massive lion requires 88 individual parts, 3D printed with fibreglass-reinforced ABS and assembled with screws. Charpiot told us that even he didn’t realize just how impressive the result would be until final assembly, when the head was mounted on top.
Drawn was initially contacted by local architectural firm Naço. They had just procured the original 3D lion design from a Dutch designer named Marthijn of 3DWP Studio, and were looking for a 3D printing service that could scale it way up to decorate the stadium.
Not only was Charpiot able to quickly send over a 50cm high scale model, 3D printed on his Galatea 3D printer, but he was also able to offer a completely localized service. “This is the leitmotif of Drawn: to locally manufacture large-scale parts and save on the supply chain,” he said.
Drawn creates custom, locally designed and locally made furniture, 3D printed with the large-format Galatea. In 2014, the company’s colorful 3D printed furniture and home decorations were featured at the Maker Faire Paris, and the following year, it successfully raised €27,706 in a Kickstarter campaign.
The proudly local startup now offers a range of services, from 3D printed furniture available via its e-shop, to custom, large-size 3D printed displays, props, logos or, in this case, lions, for special events, restaurants, hotels and more. In the future, the company wants to establish a circular system, where by consumers could return their 3D printed parts when no longer in use, so that Drawn could recycle and reuse the materials, effectively reducing waste to 0%.
Charpiot and his team are currently working on the second 3D printed lion, which will be painted white, followed by the remaining two. Once finished, the giant, majestic mascots will fiercely guard the football stadium, one facing each of the four cardinal points, while serving as a proud symbol of what can happen when local innovation and strong team spirit meet 3D printing technology.
EDIT: This article has been updated to include original photos and comments from the founder of Drawn, Sylvain Charpiot.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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It looks like this model was uploaded free by this fellow: Terragni Giuseppe 3DWP found it free here from his thingiverse page: "I found a model of a lion (kind of low poly) that needed fixing so I used the free program MeshMixer (http://www.meshmixer.com) to fill holes and scale/orient it. The original file is here: http://www.archibaseplanet.com/download/ce7e3456.html"
3DWP wrote at 2/18/2016 10:16:39 PM:
Cool pictures, it looks awesome!
3DWP wrote at 2/16/2016 7:25:04 AM:
Hi, this lion model has been on my Thingiverse page for a while.. If it's being used like this I would like some credit, people can download it from the 3DWP page here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:728085
3DWP wrote at 2/15/2016 8:25:49 PM:
Hey that's ''my'' lion 3D model :-) I have it on 3DWP's Thingiverse page: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:728085
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