Stacked

Scalable Contouring

Bench Test

People: Prof. Lawrence Sass, MIT, Co-PI: Prof. Lujie Chen, SUTD

Year: 2014

Machines: Laser Cutter

Material: Cardboard

We used a software demonstrator that generates cutting data for component manufacturing with a laser cutter or CNC machine. The system generates a new 3D model of numbered interlocking elements and a set of corresponding 2D drawings for cutting. With this system it is possible to manufacture an artifact many sizes larger than the manufacturing device. Novelty is found in the system's ability to generate contours from any 3D model across one or two planes, and subdivide the contours into smaller brick-like parts ready for hand-guided assembly. The user defines the number of contours and the spacing between each contour. Variation of these two numbers determines the quality of the artifact once components are assembled.