Ceramic Resin for SLA
Guy Allen Brady, a phd candidate at the University of Michigan's
Materials Science and Engineering department, and Michael Rees,
sculptor, have collaborated to produce a sculpture using an alumina
silicate resin on an SLA-250 from 3D systems, Valencia California.
The green sculpture fits in a cube measuring 3"x3"x3" and is the largest
object that Brady has yet built with his ceramic resin. Photographs of
the green sculpture and cad images are located at
<http://msewww.engin.umich.edu/people/halloran/sl/rees.html>
Because the alumina particles are suspended in the sla resin, it takes
rather a long time for the part to build. In this case it took almost 11
days.
The sculpture still needs to be fired whereupon it will shrink 17.5% in
the build plane and 21% in the build direction. Rees, who hasn't yet
seen the object, is delighted with the photographs of the project. "To
be able to build ceramic objects with this technology brings it back to
many of the time honored materials that sculpture is made from. It will
have a feel which is far more organic-and traditional, than many of the
materials which are currently available in rapid prototyping."
Rees has grown sculptures in 3 different rapid prototyping processes-the
SLA from 3D systems, the Kira Solid Center, and Z Corporations 3
Dimensional Printer. Currently he is working on a project to investigate
the suitability of all the rp processes and their materials and
applications to sculpture.
G. Allen Brady -- Graduate Research Assistant
Materials Science and Engineering - The University of Michigan
2219 H.H. Dow Bldg. 2300 Hayward Street Ann Arbor, MI 48105
work: 313/936-0177 fax: 313/747-4807 email:
galbrady@umich.edu
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~galbrady
-- michael rees sculptor zedand00@sound.net http://www.sound.net/~zedand00/ 0=zero 4501 belleview kansas city mo 64111
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