Autumn 2013
Idea + Industry Design and Manufacturing
Brave New World Digital Fabrication
Sustainable Innovation RecopolTM
Scrapbook: Nick Rennie
AUD$11.95 NZ$14.50
INSPIRATION / IDEATION / DESIGN / INNOVATION / INDUSTRY
048
Capacity: advanced technologies
Capacity: advanced technologies
049
I
t wasn’t that long ago when 3D
printing was purely the domain of
comically irrelevant geeky television
characters printing their own heads
onto Pez dispensers. These days, the
gathering momentum and advancements
in technology are propelling digital
additive manufacturing headlong into the
mainstream at superfast broadband speeds.
Already this year, we’ve seen 3D printing’s
pervasive influence in the worlds of fashion
and sports wear, jewellery, furniture,
construction and even more unimaginably,
Foster and Partners are proposing to build
a 3D printed lunar base. But, 3D printing
is just one sensation capturing the public’s
imagination. In this brave new world of
advanced production, ‘robotics’ has replaced
‘green’ as the new buzz word of the decade.
RMIT University recently acquired a
KUKA robot for the workshop at its School
of Architecture and Design. Andrew
Thompson, workshop co-ordinator, says,
“The University, as part of its more recent
strategic plan, saw their strengths in design
and technology. So promoting technology
within the school of design, was really the
nexus of their strategies.” As a designer
himself, Andrew saw the opportunity to
exploit the digital fabrication side.
The robot works through a subtractive
process, it carves out of a solid block of
material. This is the opposite of 3D printing
which is additive, building up layer by layer
of material. Operated through software,
the robot cuts with millimetre precision.
Students at the School of Architecture
and Design are able to use the robot make
their scale models but the applications for
furniture making are enormous.
Brave New World
Advancements in technological capabilities are set to revolutionise
design and manufacturing in the furniture industry.
Text Linda Cheng
Portrait Ty Layton at Change Creative
CapaCity: advanced technologies
050
CapaCity: advanced technologies
051
previous page: Andrew
Thompson in RMIT
School of Architecture
and Design workshop
with KUKA robot.
Right: Robofold making
folded sheet metal
interior wall coverings.
“
...if [manufacturers] employed designers and they
spent more money on product development then they
would most likely realise the full capacity of their
machines and the full potential of their business.
“
“The thing about these sorts of machines
is that you get complexity for free,” says
Andrew. “It’s going to take exactly the same
amount of time and cost to do something
incredibly detailed as it is to do something
simple. So you’re going to get arguably more
complexity in design which is probably
cheaper than hand made furniture.”
Andrew is himself a furniture designer
and became interested in digital fabrication
as a way of negating the limitations of
access to distribution. Digital fabrication
allows anyone to submit a design and
have it robotically manufactured to exact
specifications with CAD file, anywhere in
the world. “I can sell the designs online and
[the customer] can make it in their particular
location,” explains Andrew. “So in other
words, it’s global design for regional or local
manufacturing. Your location in the world as
a designer is completely irrelevant, at least in
a manufacturing sense.”
autumn issue 2013
In a similar vain, Australian
manufacturers can take advantage of these
technologies to locally manufacture globally
sourced design, thereby negating the cost of
importing high design from overseas.
We’ve seen this democratisation
effect happen in many industries due
to digitisation. Print on demand, digital
printing and e-publications have had a
seismic effect on the publishing industry
in the last few years. It’s possible that the
furniture industry can follow the same road
where anyone can design and manufacture
anything from anywhere in the world.
Our manufacturers need to open their
eyes to the possibilities of new technologies.
As Andrew says, “The uptake of high
technology seems to be really good. But they
don’t seem to use it to their full effectiveness.
They tend to have really complex and
powerful machines, which are only running
at a small fraction of their design capacity.
So they’re using very powerful machines to
do very simple things.
They buy these machines because of
efficiencies rather than for their ability to
create new types of design or new types of
products. Those two things actually marry
together because if they employed designers
and they spent more money on product
development then they would most likely
realise the full capacity of their machines
and the full potential of their business.”
Andrew cites three examples (sadly,
none Australian) of robotics used in making
furnishings. The first is Robofold, a patented
six-machine process that sculpts sheet metal
into complex shapes that are hard to achieve
through conventional methods. The process,
usually found in the automotive industry,
has so far produced decorative interior
wall coverings as well as objects such as
bowls. Robofold also offers its method of
production as a service to other designers.
above left and right:
Pongo by Matter Design.
5 axis milled timber coat
rack made in three pieces
and seemless assembles
together to appear as one
piece of carved wood.
Right: Dirk Vander Kooij’s
Endless table being made
by 3D printing robot.
Pongo designed by Matter Design uses
five-axis milling process to carve out the
three pieces of wood which assemble into a
coat rack. The result is a complex, sculptural
design that looks as if it’s been carved
from a single piece of wood, which actually
would have been almost impossible, not to
mention highly expensive. This method of
manufacturing allows the three pieces to be
“produced efficiently, shipped efficiently and
still align with mechanical fasteners”.
Lastly, Endless designed by Dirk Vander
Kooij combines robotics with 3D printing.
The Dutch designer used a decommissioned
extruding robotic arm and melted pieces of
refrigerator to create the layers of plastic
that hardens into a table or chair.
Although these robot technologies have
been able to create a highly crafted aesthetic
with little human interference, it doesn’t
mean the end for traditional craftsmanship
in furniture making. “In my opinion, what’s
going to happen is that you’re going to get a
polarisation,” says Andrew. “Fine craft will
actually remain and become more valuable
and more revered. And you’re also going to
get this sort of high end and very complex,
digital manufacturing.”
What is does mean, however, is a world
of new aesthetics and possibilities previous
unimaginable through conventional
methods of production. As Andrew explains,
“It enables us to explore more complex and
unique aesthetics that potentially give our
furniture manufacturing market and our
local furniture designers an edge over other
markets that are following design.”
KUKa Robotics kuka.com
Robofold robofold.com
RMit advanced Manufacturing precinct
rmit.edu.au/advancedmanufacturing
furnishinginternational.com