Researchers Study 3D Printing Glass

3D Printing  

Researchers have invented a system for 3D printing glass that they are calling 'G3DP.' It is an additive manufacturing platform designed to print optically transparent glass at architectural scales.

Recent advancements in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, and digital fabrication at large are today enabling the fabrication of multiple materials with combinations of mechanical, electrical, and optical properties; however, most of these materials are non-structural and cannot scale to architectural applications.

Led by researcher Neri Oxman, MIT's Mediated Matter printing project is an enabling technology for optical glass 3D printing at architectural scale designed to manufacture multi-functional glass structures and facade elements. The team calls this first-of-a-kind optically transparent glass printing process, G3DP.

The platform deposits molten glass in a layer-by-layer manner, implementing numerical control of tool paths, and it allows for controlled optical variation across surface and volume areas.

A selection of Glass pieces will appear in an exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2016.

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Glass was first created in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 4,500 years ago. Precise recipes for its production - the chemistry and techniques - often remain closely guarded secrets. Glass can be molded, formed, blown, plated or sintered; its formal qualities are closely tied to techniques used for its formation.

From the discovery of core-forming process for bead-making in ancient Egypt, through the invention of the metal blow pipe during Roman times, to the modern industrial Pilkington process for making large-scale flat glass; each new breakthrough in glass technology occurred as a result of prolonged experimentation and ingenuity, and has given rise to a new universe of possibilities for uses of the material.

The tunability enabled by geometrical and optical variation driven by form, transparency and color variation can drive; limit or control light transmission, reflection and refraction, and therefore carries significant implications for all things glass.

The platform is based on a dual heated chamber concept. The upper chamber acts as a kiln cartridge while the lower chamber serves to anneal the structures. The kiln cartridge operates at approximately 1900°F and can contain sufficient material to build a single architectural component.

The molten material gets funneled through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle. The project synthesizes modern technologies, with age-old established glass tools and technologies producing novel glass structures with numerous potential applications.

A selection of Glass pieces will appear in an exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2016.

SOURCE  Vimeo

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