Final Display

Final Display

Final Display

Final Display

Final Display

Concrete experiments, 30 of them. But decided they take too long to set so went back to plaster

3D printed component

Concrete casting

Had to work quick with Alginate as it would set within two minutes.

Testing out a plaster cast in the Alginate cast, unfortunately the plaster test broke.

I never expected alginate, a dental material, to be so practical in architecture as well. It seemed to be a perfect material for the moulds since it sets in a couple of minutes and is flexible. We also used it for applying textures to the components.

Although we built a cardboard structure to support the components, the casting didn't turn out how we expected it to. Therefore, we exhibited our research and material experimentation.

We mixed concrete in different ratios of cement, sand and water to find the best colour and consistence.

Creating mould out of Pink Alginate, however unsuccessful.

Experimenting.

One of the tasks given was to 3D print the names of our team and label them onto the finished components

Scouting out the exhibition space trying to decide how to display our components.

Finish Exhibition

Took hours to print but this is a proposal from one of the other students.

out presentation display done - we decided on just using the smaller components as the larger ones became too fragile

final day ...

My comic book of the process and development of Digital Fabri-Cast

Experimenting with casting with different materials and textures to put on the legs of the component

Credits

Mould made out of the "pink stuff"- didn't quite work

Material testing- concrete, plaster, postcrete in different proportions.

Material testing - mixing different proportions of water, sand and cement for each cup.

Pouring plaster into the mould.

Making mould in a smaller scale with alginate.

To make moulds of the component we needed to decide which material worked best for making the mould and for the component itself. So we carried out tests using resin latex and plaster.

We spent the day 3d printing out each groups components. A final component was made using the aspects of each.

Pouring in concrete for testing the first 1:1 component.

Mould ready.

Creating the mould for the components.

Material and texture tests organised.

comparing the actual model with the rhino model.

experimentation with alginate and different textures,

we decided to experiment with concrete by estimating ratios and checking the casting time.

we tested a lot of moulds with different materials, textures, and finalised what material and texture we would use for the final construction model.

The two negatives that form the component.

We built a cardboard structure around the component that would allow us to build the casts. The casts were made out of Alginate – a flexible and quick setting material.

We realised the size of the component meant we would need a lot of them, and the time it takes to cast each component meant this is not practical. We therefore redesigned the component and increased it's size. This was 3D printed in 4 parts, which were then glues together, and we begin to create the mould.

Number 13 was our favourite, as it had a relatively white colour, and took only an hour to set rock solid (for concrete this is quick). The mix was of 800ml of cement, 750ml of sand, 250ml, and 200ml of hardener.

We decided to look at a stronger material than plaster. We looked at using various mixtures of Snowcrete (white cement), Postcrete (quick-drying ready mix cement), sand, water, and a hardener. We recorded each test's mixture and the time it was mixed and poured. We were looking for a good colour (preferably white) and a quick setting time.

When use the mould to cast plaster, we found that despite the use of vaseline, the plaster stuck to the mould. As a result the component broke up.

the two 3D printed negatives that we will use for our mould

Day 7 (13/05/14) : Made a mould of the 3D component using alginate.

making the mold for the mold

concrete - getting the formula right

Our component is all printed out were now making the mould for the alginate to fill so we can get mass producing these components out of concrete to be assembled on the 1st floor

our initial design for the components to sit on- arch support

all our experiments with materials

casting experiments

We also tried using materials to give texture to our moulds so that they get printed onto our components as well.

We tried to experiment with concrete casts and weighed the pros and cons of using it.

Since our previous attempts at the plaster components failed, we tried to use other materials to cast into the moulds.

We built an arch out of cardboard for support, but it was too huge to build, so we scrapped the idea and moved on to something else.

Day 7: Matt are sanding the pieces to join together.

Day 7 (13/05/14) : Testing out mixture of concrete + white sand at different ratios to determine the best.

DAY 7: test 1 Pattern on mould

DAY 7: Cement and sand for concrete casting

Day 7: Concrete Group

DAY 7: Base Group/patterngroup

Day 7: TWO PEICES DONE

Day 7: 3D printing the second part of the final final model.

Models.

Trying textures on the mould.

Smoothing the sides of the component.

Building the arch to support the big model.

Display Space

Day 6: Component Combination

Day 5: The final component and mould.

Day 6: The first 3d printed mould.

Day 6: Arch Suport making

Day 6: Test mould with alginate

Putting up our cardboard support structure on Floor 1

Our group proposal for the component got 3D printed.