for an arts-based research project "biornametics" www.biornametics.com we came across the role model plant cell walls. we had the idea of extruders moving in space (like the quadrocopter building experiments of gramazio kohler, www.gramaziokohler.com/web/e/publikationen/index.html ) and at the same time depositing fibres. within the frame of this project there was no way of trying anything like it, but for a follow up we would be very interested to pursue this further. combining current robot technology with rp it should be possible to extrude fibres freely in 3d with any kind of fast curing material, but i have seen nothing like this yet. see also another nice work on 3d weaving by kenneth snelson kennethsnelson.net/patents/PatentWeave.pdf
best wishes
petra
Am 22.08.2012 um 00:27 schrieb Adrian Bowyer:
> That is certainly true - if you want true fibres, rather than a layered
> approximation to a fibre without any molecular alignment along the
> faux-fibre's axis.
>
> However, as soon as you move away from the flat layered approach of RP
> you abandon its single principal advantage. This is that - if you know
> you are always dealing with a flat-topped object - all the algorithmic
> problems of automated manufacture become unimaginably easier (the most
> radical computational improvement you can make to solving any problem is
> to reduce its dimensionality).
>
> But if you have living cells in the mix, then maybe a faux-fibre could
> be turned into a real one by having the cells align its molecules
> post-manufacture...
>
> Best wishes
>
> Adrian
>
> On 20/08/12 11:17, Julian Vincent wrote:
>> Having read the short bit I posted, I realised I hadn't been clear enough about 3D structures. At present (as far as I can see) RP machines of whatever ilk produce a layer at a time and the layers are all flat. But if you want to have fibres orientated in the third dimension (which insects do by effectively using a curved surface as the former) then you have to move the printing head (or whatever) in all three dimensions rather than the current 2D followed by a step-change in the 3rd D. Hence the comment about laser-ranging or whatever.
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