A one-off ‘geometric ball’ created by the largest 3D printer in the world for casting metals
Voxeljet created a 4 metre high aluminium sculpture with their VX4000 3D printer.
The ball is almost four metres high and has a complex and intertwined geometric shape: The ‘geometric ball’ is a one-off work of art, which from June 2018 onwards has decorated the roundabout at the entrance of the industrial zone of Friedberg (Bavaria).
Voxeljet, producer of industrial 3D printers, with the VX4000, one of its largest printers, printed sand moulds and cores for the metal ball in an impressive size, 3.2×3 & 5×4 metres. It is made up of eight triple knots, six quadruple knots and 24 connecting handles. The complex construction, as such, forms a geometrically never-ending mesh-like object.
The design was made by Bathsheb, an American artist, who used CAD software to design the modern art piece.
An impressive work of art step-by-step
The making of the ball took place in three steps.
In the first stage, the artist’s CAD model was used for a digital tracing of the models and cores, so as to be suitable for sand casting.
In the second stage, 3D printing the upper and lower models followed as well as the cores out of foundry sand and furan resin, which are used in the casting of metals.
The entire printing took approximately 58 hours. After printing, the moulds and cores were cleaned of excess sand, so that they would be suitable for the casting of aluminium.
In the third stage, delivery of it went to the foundry Kunstgießerei Kollinger GmbH in Elchingen close to Ulm, where the individual parts were assembled in such a way that, on the basis of gravitational casting, the alloy 226 (AlSi9Cu3) was poured into the ball, which now decorates the roundabout close to the Voxeljet Ag headquarters.
Check out the study done on the case via this link: https://goo.gl/eLRMxJ
