{"id":1007,"date":"2014-08-23T21:29:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/?p=1007"},"modified":"2017-12-10T09:57:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T09:57:21","slug":"full-length-feature-new-digital-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/?p=1007","title":{"rendered":"Full Length Feature: New Digital Craft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Saskia van der Linden.<\/small><\/p>\n

A new 21st Century Craft.<\/h1>\n

Large 3D clay printer manufactures skilfully crafted ceramics impossible to produce on a potter’s wheel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While ceramic 3Dprinters are becoming more common the cost of 3D printed consumer stoneware is still high. Dutch Design duo, Marlieke & Yao from Vormvrij|3D, has spent the last year developing an easy to use stand alone 3D printer capable of printing ceramics op to 85 cm tall with a base spanning 60 by 80 cm. They produce a steady stream of pottery while improving their printer design.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Printing with clay is not a sterile clean business, it’s more like a normal potter’s workshop’.<\/small><\/p>\n

The mix of ceramics and 3D printing followed their combined interests and resulted in a print and clay extruding system which is slightly different from the general makeup of contemporary clay 3D printers. Using a fine balance between print speed and air pressure they can regulate the material deposition from their 8 liter pressure vessel holding about 15 kilos of clay mixture. A recent addition of their prototype clay-air separator leaves the final print 98% bubble free and makes it easy to print with simple hand mixed clay. Having more than two years of experience with plastic extruding desktop 3D printing Yao found the process of design and the long wait for the product to materialize frustrating. While looking for faster ways to complete the 3D printing process Marlieke was trying to find the right potter’s wheel to create her ceramics with. The fusion of the two lead to the creation of a sturdy large scale 3D printer capable of printing fast and reliably with normal potters clay.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Woven and knitted patterns are a typical feature of this production process.’<\/small><\/p>\n

While the design and creation of their large single arm printer took
\nonly a couple of weeks the process of finding the right clay mixture
\nto print was more difficult than expected.<\/p>\n

One of the obstacles to overcome was the clay collapsing on it’s own
\nweight when printing large items. Using dryer clay was an easy
\nsolution but it resulted in rough and very outspoken surface
\ntextures. The strain on the machine and the danger of an exploding
\npressure vessel, ‘the mister bean effect’, also became a real worry.
\nAfter months of experimenting they found the right types of clay and
\nmixtures to safely print whatever they wanted. Rough or smooth and
\nsometimes using external heat to speed up the internal integrity of
\nthe larger prints they can now print functional ceramics in
\nstoneware, chamotte, terracotta and other regular clays. \u201cFor now
\nit’s the size of the oven that limits our output. But that will change as
\nsoon as we find a larger oven that can run on regular 230 Volts.\u201d Yao
\nsays.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Inner structures are one of the less explored features of clay printing.’<\/small><\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology of 3D printing and clay allows us to quickly test and
\ntry new designs. Instead of days it now only takes one hour to design
\nand make a series of simple vessels, bottles, cups or vases. If it’s not
\nas we expected we can fully recycle the material and start over. And
\nthat is only one of the many benefits of printing with clay.\u201d according
\nto Marlieke.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Design and production of these 3 bottles took less than 1 hour.’<\/small><\/p>\n

3D printing obviously leaves its signature on the designs of the duo.
\nLayered depositional manufacture is a trademark of 3D printing and
\nprinting large scale only emphasizes that fact. They regard it as part
\nof their creative process and find the layered texture a welcome
\naddition to the grain of the material.<\/p>\n

Clay is a natural product and mixing it by hand produces slight
\nvariation in consistency. It gives tiny random fluctuations to the
\nspeed at which the clay mixture is layered. Those variations lead to
\nproducts that are all unique. \u201cEven the drying conditions will ad to
\nthe final shape of a print\u201d Marlieke says. And although they have a
\nsmall cabinet with a few ‘perfect prints’ they enjoy the fact that
\nevery clay particle may lead to an unexpected result.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Creating smaller or larger items is as easy as digitally scaling the design.’<\/small><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘The open knitting pattern; impossible by hand but no problem for 3D printers.’<\/small><\/p>\n

At the moment printing in clay is a continuous print movement
\nwhich results in a spiraling layered texture. The capability to easily
\nemulate woven or knitted patterns is a bonus to the otherwise
\ndifficult to realize textures on the sterile and smooth makeup usually
\nseen in industrial ceramic production processes.
\n\u201cThis fusion of craft, human touch and 3D technology allows us to
\nquickly and accurately produce and reproduce ceramics that would
\notherwise take a Tibetan monk days on one single item\u201d Yao says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Terracotta basket.’<\/small><\/p>\n

\u201cBut the last steps still require an artists hand\u201d Marlieke continues,
\n\u201cfiring, glazing and re-firing need time and dedication. In the end
\nevery item is inspected and touched by hand. An intensive process
\nnot to be forgotten. But the fact that most prints become functional
\nceramics make it very fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘The variety is endless.’<\/small><\/p>\n

Although clay printing will probably not go mainstream like plastic
\n3D printing, Yao is now contemplating a smaller version of his clay
\nprinter. \u201cIt would still be a heavy machine. It needs to be strong and
\nthe inertia mass of it adds to the speed at which you can print. A
\nlightweight printer vibrates more which will eventually lead to clay
\ncollapse. And because speed is one of the main motives to use 3D
\nprinting over slip casting the printer must stay stable even when
\nprinting other than nicely curved forms. This way it could be a
\nfunctional and very interesting addition to any potter’s workshop.\u201d
\nhe argues.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n‘Printing intricate structures like architectural models.’<\/small><\/p>\n

The small version would accommodate potters as well as educational
\ninstitutes who want to experiment with 3D clay printing but do not
\nhave a huge oven to their disposal. And while 3D printing is growing
\nfast, clay is still a difficult material to deal with. Not many people
\nhave the space or time to work with it.<\/p>\n

As a result Yao and Marlieke see clay printing as a specialized
\ncategory within the maker community. \u201cThere are a few small
\ngroups scattered around the world developing 3d clay printers. Most
\nof their techniques are open source. But there aren’t many digitally
\nskilled potters yet which leads to a slow progress in the field of 3D
\nclay printing.\u201c
\nFor now it’s the challenge for them to evolve their printer. They are
\ncontinually redesigning and testing new ideas while maintaining a
\nsteady flow of low cost ceramic designs for the consumer market.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n’round bottle and its altered version.’<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Saskia van der Linden. A new 21st Century Craft. Large 3D clay printer manufactures skilfully crafted ceramics impossible to produce on a potter’s wheel. While ceramic 3Dprinters are becoming more common the cost of 3D printed consumer stoneware is still high. Dutch Design duo, Marlieke & Yao from Vormvrij|3D, has spent the last year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,91,13],"tags":[77,76],"class_list":["post-1007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diy","category-full-length-feature","category-vormvrij","tag-marlieke-wijnakker","tag-yao-vd-heerik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1007"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vormvrij.nl\/3dclayprinting\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}