i+D - November/December 2018 - 40

Fit to Print - By Brian Libby

Streams of Possibility
A case in point is the DXV by American Standard line of faucets
from LIXIL Corporation, 3D-printed products using a metal powder
that first were introduced in 2015. The faucets are distinctive even
if one doesn't know they were printed using 3D technology, with
sculptural shapes that also artfully guide water flow. The Vibrato
model, for example, twists its metal shape into a mesh, while the
Shadowbrook faucet combines 19 different individual flows into
one, aping the sound of a babbling brook.
"The most important criteria for using 3D printing is that it's
the absolute only technique you can use to manufacture these
shapes," explains Jean-Jacques L'Henaff, vice president of design
for LIXIL Americas. "People think you hit a button and print
and a product comes out. But, it's more complicated than that.
It was a pretty long learning curve."

DXV's faucets use a metallic powder that's melted into different shapes,
but the overhanging form of most faucets was problematic. "We realized
metal printing needed a support structure," L'Henaff explains. "You do it with
plastic and melt it afterward. We made about 100 test prints of these faucets
before getting it right, each one requiring about 100 of printing. It took a long
time to get to a point where we could create a repeatable process. But,
now that we've solved that riddle, we can create any shape we want."
Metal isn't the only material being 3D printed these days. Researchers at
Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, as well as the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, have been experimenting with 3D-printed glass.
Ceramic 3D printers already have hit the market, enabling one to print
everything from floor tiles to dishes and other housewares. More than ever,
it may be possible for designers to create a completely holistic design, as
icons like Frank Lloyd Wright once did, designing everything from a home
itself to its table and table settings.

3D + Craftsmanship
Furniture is ideally suited for 3D printing, and a host of furniture designers
have produced chairs, tables, and other pieces using this process
throughout the past decade. In 2014, for example, Philips commissioned
a series of 3D-printed lamps by design firms WertelOberfell from Berlin and
Strand+Hvass from Denmark, although they were priced in the thousands
of dollars. More recently, IKEA introduced its 3D-printed OMEDELBAR metal
wall decorations, which are shaped like hands.
Many furniture designers are finding ways to produce furniture that combines
aspects of 3D printing and traditional craftsmanship. In many cases, the
3D-printed version of a piece of furniture is a prototype; in other cases,
however, it's a finished product. Still other scenarios find 3D printing actually
doesn't make the furniture, but makes it possible. Take Belgian furniture
designer Peter Donders, who uses 3D printing both as a production method
and, in other cases, to create molds for traditionally manufactured pieces.
"As a craftsman, I'm used to making things by hand," says Donders, the son
of a carpenter who grew up building furniture but began using 3D printing
a decade ago. "I can go much further in my designs: more complexity, more
detail, and even more variations of one design."

The 3D-printed Vibrato
faucet from DXV
features a weightless
lace design interpreted
through robust metals.

Donders' Batoidea chair, first produced for a Moscow Design Week
competition in 2011, uses disposable molds 3D printed with sand to create
a curved chair with a web-like form. For a later design-the metal Ti-Join
chair-Donders designed and 3D printed the titanium joints, in addition to
using the sand-mold process. The Ti-Join makes its printed joints the star
of the chair rather than something to hide. "The customer loves to see the
details of the craft," the designer explains. "It gives the design personality
along with the shape."

(Image: DXV)

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i+D - November/December 2018
i+D - November/December 2018

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