image © Objet Geometries Ltd

I heard about this from my supervisor, Dr. Ian Campbell, who recently met with one of Objet’s representatives. Basically the Connex500 machine contains two different materials, one (from what I understand) a rubber-based material, and one a more conventional plastic. This allows printed models to simulate products which would be manufactured by twin-shot moulding processes.

image © Objet Geometries Ltd

However, designers will be able to do much more than create prototypes of overmoulded parts, because the Connex500 comes with 21 so-called Digital Materials - preset blends of the two materials with specific Shore A (hardness) values. The designer can therefore match (or get close to) the mechanical properties of the manufactured part, which should allow more accurate testing.

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The Swedish design group Front first showed their ‘Sketch Furniture’ at Tokyo Design week in November 2006. The original video of the Front designers creating this furniture was removed from You Tube some time ago, but I just found out a new video has been posted. This one’s much the same as the original, but shows the ’sketching’ in a new environment and visualises the linework better.

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