CAD and rapid prototyping for product design

176 Pages·2014·16.33 MB·english

by  Bryden

CAD AND RAPID PROTOTYPING
FOR PRODUCT DESIGN
Laurence King Publishing
Published in 2014 by
Laurence King Publishing Ltd
361–373 City Road
London EC1V 1LR
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
email: [email protected]
www.laurenceking.com
Design © 2014 Laurence King Publishing Limited
Text © 2014 Douglas Bryden
Douglas Bryden has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs, and Patent Act 1988, to be identified as the Author
of this Work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
ISBN: 978 1 78067 342 4
Series and book design: Unlimited
Picture research: Douglas Bryden and Fredrika Lökholm
Printed in China

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 6
Joris Laarman Lab (Bone Chair and Bone Chaise) 8
1 COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN 10
11
11
13
15
Design Partners (G930 Wireless Gaming Headset) 20
DCA Design (Mylo Pushchair) 24
Therefore (VIA Personal Navigational Devices) 28
Tools Design (Lunchbox and Wine Catalyzer) 32
Factory Design (Superlight Aircraft Seating) 36
Studio Aisslinger (YILL Mobile Energy-Storage Unit) 38
40
Stefano Giovannoni (AlessiPhone and AlessiTab) 50
Philips Design (DesignLine Television and Home 52
Cinema System)
Priestmangoode (Moving Platforms) 54
56
59
2 RAPID PROTOTYPING 66
67
67
67
68
70
2Form (Memento Rug) 76
Lauren Moriarty (Noodle Block Cube, Stitch 78
Studies and Geometric Structure Cushion)
David Trubridge (Kina Light and Dream Space 80
Gazebo)
Daniel Rohr (Colander Table) 84
Paul Loebach (Shelf Space) 86
88
Fuseproject (SAYL Office Chair) 100
Freedom Of Creation (Dahlia Wall Light, Palm 102
Pendant Light, Macedonia Tray, Trabecula Tray, Punch Bag
and V Bag)
Ryuji Nakamura & Associates (Insect Cage) 104
Michaella Janse van Vuuren (Chrysanthemum) 106
CONTENTS
WertelOberfell Platform (Fractal.MGX Table) 108
Erich Ginder (Materialized Vase) 110
Michael Eden (Wedgwoodn’t Tureen, Vortex, 112
Maelstrom IV and Bloom)
Bathsheba Grossman (Klein Bottle Opener) 116
118
121
3 RESEARCH AND THE FUTURE OF CAD AND RAPID PROTOTYPING 128
129
131
132
134
135
137
RepRap (Self-Replicating Manufacturing Machines) 140
Fab@Home (Open-Source 3D Printers) 142
AM Research Group (Customized Sprinting Spikes) 144
Growthobjects (Broccoli and Lily Lamp) 146
Future Factories (Entropia Lamp) 148
Bespoke Innovations (Bespoke Prostheses 150
Fairings)
Exstent (ExoVasc Cardiovascular Device) 152
Southampton University (Laser Sintered Aircraft) 154
EADS (Airbike) 156
158
164
167
170
170
171
172
175
176
6
INTRODUCTION
Introduction 7
The impact of CAD and rapid prototyping
Computing technologies enable us to explore and define the world around us in
an ever increasing number of ways, helping scientists, engineers, architects and
designers to solve complex problems and define future directions for the
man-made world in which we live. Product design involves an iterative process
of research, analysis, thinking, conceptualizing, visualizing, model making,
prototyping, testing and refining. As computing technologies evolve, they
continue to influence this process. Computer-aided design (CAD) is a form of
digital prototyping used within this product development process. Rapid
prototyping (RP) refers to a set of computer-controlled machine processes used
for prototyping and manufacturing parts from CAD files. CAD and RP are two sets
of tools used by product designers in developing products from initial concept to
manufactured product.
CAD and RP are embedded in product design, engineering and
manufacturing. These technologies have greatly improved productivity by
enabling designers and engineers to explore and to push the limits of product
form and visual complexity, to evaluate better and to test more accurately their
designs in ways not possible in the recent past, and to design products within
ever shorter product development timescales. As advances in rapid prototyping
technologies accelerate, these processes are increasingly used not only as a
means to produce prototype parts but also to manufacture components and
products, while at the same time they are freeing designers from many of the
constraints placed on them by traditional manufacturing processes.
The computer is an invaluable tool in the design process, enabling
designers to create and output virtual models as high-quality rapid prototyped
models in order to evaluate their designs in the real world. CAD and RP now
play a central role in design development and are a fundamental part of the
professional practice of product design. It is therefore important for product
design students to be aware of the range of CAD and RP processes used in
industry, of how they are used and of the similarities and differences between
different processes. This information can be difficult to find. This book aims to
provide an informative, engaging and useful overview of the fundamental
principles of computer-aided design and rapid prototyping and, through a variety
of case studies, to reveal some of the processes by which these tools are being
used by designers and researchers.
Organization of this book
Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the use of CAD and RP and include explanations of
principles and processes, with the aid of screenshots, computer-generated
images, photographs and illustrations. Chapter 3 focuses on research and
discusses recent and speculative developments. Case studies of international
product design consultancies, global manufacturing brands, leading product
design practitioners and leading researchers are used throughout the book to
provide a clear picture of current industry practice and research.
8 CAD and Rapid Prototyping for Product Design
Joris Laarman Lab
Products: Bone Chair, Bone Chaise
Client: Joris Laarman
Materials: Bone Chair: aluminium;
Bone Chaise: polyurethane
RP process: Bone Chaise: 3D printing
in ceramic (for mould creation)
Dimensions: Bone Chair: 750 x 760 x
350mm (29.53 x 29.92 x 13.78in); Bone
Chaise: 1470 x 770 x 850mm (57.87 x
30.31 x 33.46in)
Designer: Joris Laarman
Design to production: 2 years
Website: www.jorislaarman.com
Introduction
Following studies at the Design
Academy, Eindhoven, The
Netherlands, from which he graduated
in 2003, Joris Laarman established his
studio with film-maker Anita Star in
Amsterdam in 2004. Describing the
studio as a ‘lab’ and ‘an experimental
playground set up to study and shape
the future,’ their work focuses on
collaborations with craftsmen,
scientists and engineers to investigate
possibilities presented by emerging
technologies. In 2011 Laarman received
one of eight Wall Street Journal
Innovator of the Year awards and his
work forms part of the permanent by German Professor of Biomechanics same way it did for car parts, utilizing
collections of several renowned Claus Mattheck and Lothar Hartzheim, material only where it was needed.
international museums, including the investigating the ways in which trees
Museum of Modern Art, New York, the and bones were constructed through Process
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, evolution. In 1998, Hartzheim, based at Intending to use the software as
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, the International Development Centre ‘a high-tech sculpting tool to create
Germany, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, at Opel, part of General Motors, had elegant shapes’, the project began
and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. worked with Professor Mattheck to as an experiment. Working in
Laarman recently worked with develop a new type of CAD software. collaboration with the International
Renny Ramakers of Dutch design The software was used to model car Development Centre at Opel, Laarman
studio Droog and internet entrepreneur components based on natural determined that the unique software
Michiel Frackers on developing construction principles in order to could be adapted to produce a chair.
Make-Me, an online platform for optimize their strength and reduce First, the required positions,
open-source downloadable designs their weight. shapes and loading parameters for
and a virtual hub where designers can Amazed by the efficiency, beauty the seat and back of the chair were
be paired with manufacturers. and accuracy that this optimization defined. Through a process of running
software could generate, and inspired repeated generations of simulation,
Approach by the possibilities that the software similar to a speeded-up process of
The bone furniture project started in presented, Laarman wanted to use it evolution, the software then used an
2004 when Laarman learnt of research to optimize the design of furniture, the algorithm to calculate the optimum size
Introduction 9
and shape of the supporting structure For each of the 12 chairs, which There is a long tradition of
underneath the seat and back, were gravity cast in molten aluminium, mimicking nature in design, but the
removing any material not required for a disposable ceramic mould was Bone Chair and Bone Chaise push
support and thickening areas bearing created from several pieces, each of beyond copying natural forms, instead
greater load. Material properties also which had been created using three- utilizing mathematical code to reflect
determined the aesthetic of the dimensional printing (3DP). As this was the code used by nature to create life.
products, with the stronger aluminium a new and experimental technique, Laarman comments, ‘ever since
material specified for the chair resulting many tests were required to perfect it. industrialization we have wanted to
in a more slender structure than the To cast the chaises, a master pattern make objects inspired by nature, but
chaise, for which polyurethane had was first created from MDF using CNC our digital age makes it possible to use
been specified. machining. A reusable 30-piece epoxy nature not just as a stylistic reference,
Laarman initially approached resin mould was then made around the but to borrow the underlying principles
Clemens van Bliierswijk, a professor pattern at the workshop of designer to generate shapes like an evolutionary
at the University of Twente in The and model maker Vincent de Rijk. process.’
Netherlands, with a speciality in live Once the complex mould had been Laarman has developed a unique
bone growth, to investigate the created, the master pattern was way of creating furniture, questioning
possibility of making the chair from removed and a UV-resistant, clear the design process and traditional
actual bone, but this was found to be polyurethane resin was used to cast thinking about designers’ control over
unfeasible. On receiving a commission each of the 12 chaises. Both the chair form giving. Instead of using the
from Droog and the Friedman Benda and the chaise were then polished to computer merely as a tool to enable
gallery in New York, Laarman reverted create the desired finish. the creation of a design vision, the
to more traditional forms of fabrication Laarman worked for three years computer becomes co-creator,
and selected casting to produce each in an attempt to make an economically anticipating a future in which designers
of the two pieces in a limited-edition viable, mass producible version of and computers work together
run of twelve. the Bone Chair, but the project was symbiotically to create products.
To better evaluate the designs abandoned as it proved highly difficult
produced by the software, 1:1 scale and too expensive. Technological
polystyrene foam models of the two progress may one day make it
pieces were hand sculpted, closely accessible to a wider market.
referencing the designs the software
had generated. Initially, Laarman Result
wanted to create the chairs from paper Completed in 2006, the Bone Chair
using a somewhat dated rapid and Bone Chaise now form part of Fig. 1 (opposite)
Bone Chair.
prototyping process named laminated an expanded collection of seven
Fig. 2
object manufacturing (LOM). Two different designs, all produced from Development of the Bone Chair and Bone Chaise
halves of the chair were fabricated on a different materials and using a range within the unique CAD software designed by
Mattheck and Hartzheim.
LOM machine and glued together, but of methods but following the same
Fig. 3
the final result proved to be too weak. design principles. Bone Chaise.