Hasta La Ideas

Japanese designer Kouichi Okamoto has made a tape cutter with a curved edge that he uses to create drip-like patterns (+ movie).

Okamoto designed the Liquid Tape Cutter as a tool for decorating walls and objects with lengths of sticky tape.

In the video, Okamoto first applies the tape from the top of the wall downwards, using the metal cutter to make a convex curve at the bottom.

He then sticks the remaining concave curve at the bottom of the wall and travels upwards.

Okamoto designed the tool for his own use at his studio, Kyouei Design, based in Shizuoka, Japan.

We previously featured a structure woven from kilometres of adhesive tape and an abandoned apartment where a wall, furniture and ornaments are covered by a layer of tape.

We also published stripy wallpaper designed to look like strips of coloured tape and rolls of patterned tape made for covering old and unwanted furniture.

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for Kyouei Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Il designer inglese Max Lamb è una delle più belle scoperte che ho fatto durante il 2012. Max costruisce elementi di arredo di grandissima personalità; uso il termine costruire perché nel suo caso il designer è anche l’artigiano che realizza gli oggetti, utilizzando tecniche costruttive che connotano in maniera decisiva il risultato finale. Tutti i prodotti pubblicati nel sito di Max Lamb sono accompagnati da un’ampia galleria fotografica che mostra le fasi di lavorazione, così che diventa facile capire come, e perché, l’oggetto ha tale aspetto.
Un progetto che esemplifica bene questo solido approccio progettuale è la serie di tavoli triangolari Pewter, fabbricati con una lega metallica a base di stagno. I tavoli sono fabbricati in spiaggia perché il metallo allo stato liquido è versato in una cassaforma scavata a mano tra la sabbia da Max Lamb stesso. Per capire meglio il procedimento consiglio di guardare questo time-lapse video pubblicato su Youtube. Di solito le persone perdono le loro cose nella sabbia ma a volte, invece, si possono scovare dei tesori.

Each tab on this credit card-sized pack by American designers Bolt Group can be torn off and used as a USB stick.

The GIGS.2.GO pack by Bolt Group is made of recycled paper pulp and contains four tear-off tabs with a USB flash drive in each.

The concept was inspired by Bolt Group designers frequently having problems sharing presentation and CAD files with clients.

“Burning CDs is slow and impractical, and nobody wants to leave behind their trusty—and expensive—32GB thumb drive. We saw a need for a smaller pack of drives that could be shared and even left behind with a client,” said designer Kurt Rampton.

Though the drives are designed to last for many uses, the paper and electronic components can eventually be separated and recycled.

Other USB sticks we’ve featured include a Nendo design concealed as a paper clip and a collection of jewellery that conceals USB drives.

See more technology on Dezeen »

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Bolt Group appeared first on Dezeen.

Plastic extruded from this robotic 3D printer solidifies instantly, allowing it to draw freeform shapes in the air extending from any surface (+ movie).

Unlike normal 3D printers that require a flat and horizontal base, Mataerial prints with plastic that sticks to horizontal, vertical, smooth or irregular surfaces, without the need for additional support structures.

Petr Novikov and Saša Jokić from Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia worked with the studio of Dutch designer Joris Laarman to develop the machine and system.

The process, which the designers call “anti-gravity object modelling”, is a form of extrusion that instantly creates chunky three-dimensional rods, rather than slowly building up two-dimensional layers like a standard 3D printer.

“One of the key innovations of anti-gravity object modelling is the use of thermosetting polymers instead of thermoplastics that are used in existing 3D printers,” explained the designers.

A chemical reaction between the two components of the thermosetting polymer causes the material to solidify as it comes out of the nozzle, making it possible to print hanging curves.

The speed of extrusion is dependent on factors such as the desired thickness of the material, but in this example the printer produced one metre in approximately three minutes. The movie’s frame rate was increased up to three times to show the process more quickly.

We recently featured a similar idea on a much smaller scale – a pen that can “print” 3D doodles in mid-air. See all 3D printing on Dezeen or check out Print Shift, our one-off magazine about additivie manufacturing.

Last year Novikov was part of a team of students from the IAAC who built a robotic 3D printer that creates architectural structures from sand or soil.

Joris Laarman’s 2006 Bone chaise and mould design was acquired by the V&A museum in London last year – see all design by Joris Laarman.

Here’s some more information from the design team:

Mataerial is the result of the collaborative research between Petr Novikov, Saša Jokić from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Joris Laarman Studio. IAAC tutors representing Open Thesis Fabrication Program provided their advice and professional expertise. During the course of the research we developed a brand new digital fabrication method and a working prototype that can open a door to a number of practical applications. The method that we call Anti-gravity Object Modeling has a patent-pending status.

Mataerial – a brand new method of additive manufacturing. This method allows for creating 3D objects on any given working surface independently of its inclination and smoothness, and without a need of additional support structures. Conventional methods of additive manufacturing have been affected both by gravity and printing environment: creation of 3D objects on irregular or non-horizontal surfaces has so far been treated as impossible. By using innovative extrusion technology we are now able to neutralise the effect of gravity during the course of the printing process. This method gives us a flexibility to create truly natural objects by making 3D curves instead of 2D layers. Unlike 2D layers that are ignorant to the structure of the object, the 3D curves can follow exact stress lines of a custom shape. Finally, our new out of the box printing method can help manufacture structures of almost any size and shape.

One of the key innovations of anti-gravity object modelling is the use of thermosetting polymers instead of thermoplastics that are used in existing 3D printers. The material is cured because of a chemical reaction between two source components with such proportion of extrusion and movement speeds that it comes solid out of the nozzle; this feature makes it possible to print hanging curves without support material.

The desired shape is created by user in CAD software and then transformed into 3d curves describing the shape which are then converted into movement paths for the robotic arm. The thickness of the printed curve can be scaled down to less than a millimeter and can be adjusted during the printing process, by changing the speed of the movement. Colors can be injected in the nozzle in CMYK mode that allows changing of the curve color throughout the printing process.

In our vision, Mataerial can be applied in different fields, from furniture and architecture manufacturing to desktop and space 3d printing.

The post Mataerial by Petr Novikov, Saša Jokić,
Joris Laarman Studio and IAAC appeared first on Dezeen.

Founded in 1956 to preserve the historical craft of handmade carpets, Hong Kong’s Tai Ping has grown into a global leader in quality carpeting. In recent years the renowned maker of woven Axminster, hand-tufted, machine-tufted, printed carpet and Axminster carpet tile designs introduced…

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