“.MGX BY MATERIALISE JUST ANNOUNCED THE AVAILABILITY OF IT’S NEW CATALOGUE”
As a pioneers in 3D printed designs with more than 10 years of ground-breaking, award-winning collaborations with leading designers from around the world, .MGX has a great design collection of 3D printed objects available ready to bring a new dimension into the home. The new catalogue is just released and provides a comprehensive overview of various impressive designs as created by leading designers.
Challenging Technology – Engaging Designers
We live in a society buzzing with technology, spending our days in a whirlwind of impressive images, new products, and an overwhelming number of information. Being inspired by this enervy, .MGX challenged some of the worlds’ top designers to use revolutionary 3D printing technologies to create some special, revolutionary products. The .MXG collection is the result of that challenge: a beautiful selection of lamps and design accessories that do much more than just light up a room or furnish a house. These are products that engage both the imagination and the senses. One of the best story tellers is, if it’s up to us, the “Fall of the Damned” Chandelier by Dutch architect Luc Merx. Apart from the imaginative power, it creates mood and brings magic to any setting while translating the story of a monumental religious painting: a jumble of the bodies of the damned, hurled into abyss by archangel Michael and accompanying angels.
3D Printing Methods
Manufactured by using a variety of different 3D printing technologies, the .MGX catalogue brings together the best of craftmanship in both a modern and traditional way. 3D technologies allow the production of complex shapes that would otherwise never be impossible to create. Each manufactured part is individually sketched, converted into a CAD file, created by laser beam and carefully finished by hand.
21ST CENTURY OPTICS: A DAY FROM THE LIFE OF ‘OPTICS JOHN’
The life of John, a lighting fixture engineer isn’t easy. It’s though work for him to keep the companies product sellable. It’s rather frustrating that during the product development cycle, continuously better LED chips arrive on stage. So before John’s new fixture is ready, it already need an update. Therefore, it’s quite time consuming for his company to invest in expensive molds and volumes of molded parts.
Obsolescence is causing a huge waste, straining both environment as balance sheets. And Johns boss is not happy about that. In many cases, John is forced to use standard parts and lenses. So are his competitors. The result is that many fixtures look the same. And, there are no attractive options to customize the lighting for a project or application.
Traditional Optics Design: balancing between extraordinary (tooling) cost and long lead times
21st Century Optics
Luckily for John, now in the 21st Century according to The Economist, the Third Industrial Revolution has started. In the meantime, we’ve all heard about 3d printing, right? Well, John did. Basically, you have a material. It goes into a printer. This printer heats and melts the material, and deposits it in layers. This way, it can build what you tell it to build. On demand. So basically, now Johns computer can create cheap and flexible inventory.
3D printing – How it Works
3D printing – How it Works
There are a lot of different 3D printers. Some of them can print plastic, others can print metals, or even ceramics. But none of them can do what LUXeXceL can do! And this is where it get’s interesting for John! LUXeXceL offerst 3D printed optics. The developed a unique 3D printing process, using transparent optical material to making lenses and optical components. Like LED lenses, a magifying glass or even a pair of real functioning glasses. LUXeXceL’s process lets droplets flow into each other before they are cured, with UV light creating a 100% smooth and transparent product. And… there is no need to post-process the products by polishing, coloring or grinding them.
Use of Printed Optics
So what are these optics used for? Well, they can be found in a lot of products. The most common ones would be an average lamp, which has an optical component to direct the light. There are optics in your flashlight, in your reading light, in the train, in streetlights, refrigorators and even in the buttons of your coffee machine. John is happy, because now his lenses can be made digitally and super-fast. Without the need to buy him a minumum order value and volumes of thousands of components.
3D Printed Optics: Design – Print – Iterate – Print
Digital – Super Fast – Flexible
With 3D printed optics, there are no minimum order quantities. If John only needs 50 pieces, he can simply order 50 pieces. This is saving him a lot of money and time. Now Johns process to develop and test the lens becomes easy. All he need is a CAD file of the design. This file is directly loaded in the printer. If he wants to change something, he can simply change his design and have it printed again. No expensive investments in molds or other tools are needed, again saving Johns’ company money. 3D printed optics now allows John to do his development easier, faster and better. He now even can help customers with designing fixtures with easy interchangeable lenses, so that for every lighting project can provide a perfect light distribution with ease. Don’t waste your time, money and our environment, have your optics 3D printed today!
‘Meet Optics John‘
Now, please take a minute to listen to the story of Optical Designer ‘John’ and how printed optics changed his life. He and his colleagues are doing a great job on digitizing the optics manufacturing.
More about ‘John’ and the Future of Printed optics at LUXeXceL’s website. The Future of Optics starts today!
“REPLACING 3D PRINTING FILAMENTS WITH LIGHT RESULTS IN TRULY ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING 3D PRINTS EVER BUILT”
When it comes to 3D printing on FDM based 3D printers, there are plenty materials and colors to choose from today. One ingenious man, named Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi, however, decided to use this process to try something entirely out of the ordinary: try 3D printing with light as a filament.
As you may know, most 3D printers use print technologies where they print ‘layer wise’, converting a CAD file directly into a solid object. The parts come off the printer as full 3-dimensional items. Ekarggrat decided to implement an entirely new concept within the print process. He wonder what would happen if instead of using traditional filament, he used LED lights, thus he set out on a mission to find out.
Building the object layer-by-layer until the print is complete
A Virtual Printing Reality
Of course you may understand that tangible objects couldn’t be printed in light, as we all know that light is intangible. However, utilizing a camera enables the visualization of a complete 3D printed object, built entirely out of light. He then took his camera, set it to the ‘BULB’ mode, and took a photograph using a very long exposure value. This was while the 3D printer moved using the LED light on the path he defined in the gcode. The extruder on the printer was turned off, so that it didn’t actually print with traditional filament.
The printer moving around, shining its LED light attached to the print head
Painting with Light
This is a twist to an age old technique called ‘light painting’. The results? They were quite incredible. You can see each layer that the 3D printer moved around, shining its LED light, that was attached to the print head, as it went layer-by-layer until the print was complete. Of course, there is no end product other than these fascinating photos that were taken.
The entire project took Ekaggrat only two days to complete, and he isn’t stopping here. If we understood it correctly, he plans on implementing a RGB LED to add some more color to his modern ‘light painting’ technology.
We’re curious what’s next, and will definitely update on what’s coming!
“LIGHT, ART AND HUE: 3D PRINTED LUMINAIRES PERFECTLY COMBINE WITH CONNECTED HUE LIGHT SOURCES”
Fusing the worlds of Light, Art and Technology, 3D printed luminaires allow limitless light effects, bringing a piece of art into the living room. Adding colorful and sustainable light sources as, for example, the innovative Philips Hue Wireless Controlled Light System, delivers a great lighting experience for any home.
3D Printed Hue Luminaires
With Hue, a simple finger swipe on your smartphone or tablet lets you create infinite personal light effects from a palette of over 16 million colors, shades of white and programmable light scenes. You can turn your 3D printed luminaires into stunning features such as illuminating the luminaires to tune in with the setting sun, by connecting it to automated internet services.
A revolution in Lighting Design
“3D printing provides more freedom, control and even personalization when designing great lighting products. There are fewer boundaries for creativity with as there are unlimited options to generate any mood or lighting effect. Combined, it is possible to create the most advanced, digital technologies for a functional, emotional and unique light object. The expression of colors as produced by Hue adds an surprising element that’s magical and mysterious, creating a sense of wonder.
Fully compatible with Philips Hue
3D printed table and pendant luminaires, from for example Philips, Shapeways and i.Materialise, are fully compatible with the expanding Philips Hue lighting eco-system of bulbs, lamps, apps and switches. Philips even developed a special range of 3D printed fixtures that were especially designed for use with Hue. They were co-created with some globally-renowned design teams and displayed at the Light + Building Show in Frankfurt recently.
“ZOOM: A SURPRISING AND FUNCTIONAL 3D PRINTED LAMPSHADE”
Created as a programmable object in generative design software, ‘ZooM’ has a structure created from hundreds of repeating elements that together form a series of interlocking spirals.
ZooM Lampshade – 3D printed in blue and white raw material.
3D printing allows this pentagonal lampshade to be manufactured flat and completely assembled; folded out, it’s flexible like a textile, while maintaining its form like a rigid product. The semi-transparent structure shields the bulb’s glare, while transmitting light efficiently.
Just a simple cord and bulb socket are needed to create a functional, architectural lamp.
Seeing the product unfold from a flat disc to a full sized lampshade never ceases to amaze. From there, all that is needed is a simple cord and bulb socket to create a functional, architectural lamp.
Seeing the product unfold from a flat disc to a full sized lampshade never ceases to amaze.
“3D PRINTED SCULPTURE ARTWORK TRANSFORMS AND CHARACTERIZES SPACES”
Hilden & Diaz Artists are finding interesting ways to use 3D printers, like Forms in Nature, a light sculpture that casts fantastic shadows of gnarly trees on the walls of the room in which it hangs.
The 3D printed light sculpture casts fantastic shadows of gnarly trees on the walls when it hangs.
The light sculpture Forms in Nature is partly inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s (1834-1919) detailed plots from nature and is a further development of Hilden & Diaz’ fascination with mirrorings, as they have previously applied in other artworks. Using a simple action, such as intensifying the brightness at the center of the artwork, the light transforms the space and adds character, as the work throws oversized shadows onto walls and ceilings in the space in which it hangs.
Through mirroring and intensified brightness at the center of the artwork oversized shadows are thrown onto walls and ceilings in the space
Forms in Nature Artwork
Forms in Nature is an artwork with a light source surrounded by a dense and unruly tree and root system created in minature sculpture. The forest is mirrored around it’s horizontal central axis and forms a circle 360 degrees around the light source and thereby leads one onto the notion of a real world versus an underworld.
Interestingly, the roots are those elements of the forest that are the most visible
The sculpture is not only mirrored, but also turned upside down in Hilden & Diaz’ artwork. As the intensity of the light source increases, the room changes and the space slowly becomes more and more fascinating and unheimlich.
The shadows engulfs the room and transforms the walls into unruly shadows of branches, bushes and gnarled trees.
Mirrorings are thrown out upon the walls and ceilings and provide weak Rorschach-like hints of faces, life and flow of consciousness. Diming the lights transforms the installation and one senses a weak fire burning deep in the center of the forest.
Great Lighting Inspiration, with many thanks for this increadible artwork to Hilden & Diaz Artists.
“A MASTERPIECE OF VIRTUOSITY: SIMILAR TO 18TH-CENTRURY IVORY FURNITURE, STRAIGHT FROM A COMPUTER”
It’s been a while since the initial launch in 2007, however the magic “Fall of the Damned Chandelier” designed by Dutch architect Luc Merx and printed by MGX.Materialise is still intriguing and very impressive. Consisting of a cluster of writhing human bodies and based on the notion of the fall of the damned, the lamp is made of white selective laser sintered polyamide.
Fall of the Damned Chandelier : a 3D printed masterpiece about guilt and morality.
Seamless Masterpiece as One Part
The Damned.MGX chandelier was produced using additive layered fabrication as one piece, without joints or seams, and would be impossible to produce using other manufacturing methods. It appears as a hovering mass of writhing nudes – opulent and bombastic – and recalls the classical motif of the fall of the damned, challenging viewers with age-old questions of guilt and morality.
Unlimited Design Freedom
The lamp is a masterpiece of virtuosity, similar to that of 18th-century ivory furniture, but the difference is that this is not the result of our virtuosity, but that of a computer. The new questions about the possibilities of forms posed by this originate in a new understanding of technology. Technology no longer generates the forces, which determine the design of goods, but it enables an incredible range of possibilities and thus creates a new freedom of form.
Fall-of-the-Damned-Chandelier: 21st Century Masterpiece compared to the original 18th Century Painting.
Difference in Design Approach
The answer to this new freedom is not the voluntary self-restriction usually applied in modern design. Instead it’s the roam to work freely in the myriads of possibilities given to us. When considering design in this way, the design reflects the situation of the designer himself!
“3D PRINTED LED OPTICS: STRAIGHT FROM THE PRINTER WITH ONLY ONE STEP FROM CAD-TO-OPTIC”
Luximprint, a Dutch company having it’s head quarters and Creative Factories in Wemeldinge, Netherlands, offers services for Optics Design and Additive Manufacturing of Inspirational, Functional and Decorative Optical Plastics. The process 3D prints optical structures and elements using modified wide format industrial inkjet equipment.
3D Printed LED Optics – In only one step from a digital CAD to an functional optics end product.
Droplets on Demand
Transparent droplets of a curable acryllic resin are jetted and then cured by strong UV-lamps which are integrated onto the print head. The results of the printoptical process are geometric or freeform shapes that may include transparent prisms or lenses, as well as full color 3D graphics and textures, all in a single print job.
Optical surfaces – no post-processing
The results of the process are geometric or freeform shapes that may include transparent prisms or lenses, as well as full color 3D graphics and textures. Optical quality surfaces are achieved with no post processing. Processing 3D printed optical plastics avoids complicated and costly conventional processes, gets rid of obsolete stock and shortens the time to market significantly.
Functional 3D printed plastics – A printed lens array by Luximprint
More about the inventive Luximprint technologies and fabrication processes, the key to 3D printed LED optics is available at the companies website. If you’d like to further dive into the world of additive manufacturing, please also refer to a more extensive article on 3D printing of complete lighting fixtures elsewhere on this website.
Challenging Technology – Engaging Designers
