Making Prototypes From Printed Ice Sculptures

[Guest]

Will technology make another creative craft obsolete?

Making Prototypes From Printed Ice Sculptures : Read more

 

[Tindytim]

Why bother hiring someone for that wedding or special event, when you can just rent a machine for a few hours for a more intricate result?

Apparently you've never used a CNC machine then. You'll have to be proficient in CAD, and somewhat computer savy in order to properly use on to create "your dreams". Not to mention most CNC devices are limited to rather small work areas. So the idea of creating a human sized ice sculpture on a device that could actually be moved on a regular truck is ludicrous.

That said, all they really did was decide to use ice instead of resin, it sounds like a cool idea, but as stated, they have no way of creating a mold at this point. I'd be more interested if/when they do.

 

[p00dl3_h3r0]

I agree with TindyTim. The whole point to most rapid prototyping machines on the market is to create a quick mold out of resin for the purpose of using it to mass produce product. Until they find a way to make ice do that, you'll only have a nice looking hunk of ice with NO engineering usefulness, unless of course you have no vision and need a physical piece in front of you to have any idea whats going on. Also, I don't think this will take ice sculptors out of the equation, seeing as how the ice pieces they make uses a method of chilling ice which traps in air, causing the pieces to look a little cloudy, and therefore probably not the beautiful artesian transparent sculptures people pay big money for.

All that aside, I think the cold drink applications are amazing.

 

[2zao]

can it put color in the ice too? the mug in rear right it blue...

 

[jossrik]

Is resin really *that* expensive? Aren't there bigger fish to fry in the eco-friendly market? It just seems like they've put a lot of man hours into something that may be revolutionary, but overall isn't really that impressive... Does the cost of keeping the room at or below freezing offset the cost difference of the resin? How viable is it to make really tiny parts that could easily entirely melt quickly? Seems like the heat of creating the part could ruin a smaller part but be fine for larger parts.

 

[freggo]

Creating a mold should not be a problem. Just treat it like you'd do a WAX prototype; but in a chilled room for the obvious reasons.

 

[Clintonio]

[citation][nom]jossrik[/nom]Is resin really *that* expensive? Aren't there bigger fish to fry in the eco-friendly market? It just seems like they've put a lot of man hours into something that may be revolutionary, but overall isn't really that impressive... Does the cost of keeping the room at or below freezing offset the cost difference of the resin? How viable is it to make really tiny parts that could easily entirely melt quickly? Seems like the heat of creating the part could ruin a smaller part but be fine for larger parts.[/citation]
You make no sense. Tell me, where is your closest supply of water? Not even fresh water, just, plain old water?

It is so much cheaper that this would be worth it. Imagine how many MORE prototype models they could afford to spit out when they just need to feed in water from the old one. Or the kitchen sink, etc.

As for the feasibility; I presume they've compensated for that in the design of this product. If they haven't, it'll collapse and so will their business, which is no loss to you or I.

 

[jecastej]

Very interesting, I work modeling in 3D and I would like to see my fantasy projects out of the screen in my desKtop. And I could finish them by hand to give them the finished hand touch. But it may be to expensive for me now to have any of those already available 3D printers.

What I think is the point with this prototype technique is what happens if for example you could order an ice or an any other material figure from a selected catalog for a wedding. Why would you rent the machine if you could go to a place and order the 3D figure get it delivered to you? This way you don't need a CG 3D artist every time but an ice artist could still be available to finish the job.

For fast prototyping it will be really good but even though this technique may allow you have a finer model this is ice we are talking about so it may be good for artistic commercial objects. It may not replace other techniques but it will be another tool and allow very fast try and see decision making process. To iterate the modeling process.

 

[jnanster]

I'm sure the air conditioning to keep the room sub-zero is carbon neutral too.

 

[Guest]

will it play crysis?

 

[figgus]

Cool.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

Besides, those sculptures aren't see through. They look like crap. Ice sculptures made by human hands looks much better.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Nice, great way to see if something you want made will sit up straight and have no problems.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]funnyguy[/nom]will it play crysis?[/citation]
Can it re-create the Crysis universe, and then we can play in it, in real life...
Or will there be I-RM, Ice Rights Management, making the game unplayable?

 

[ethanolson]

HP's DesignJet 3D is better.

 

[l_mckeon]

The process may not be stuck at zero degrees.

What if they start adding gelatine to the water? I believe some of the plant derived gelatines are still solid at 18 Celsius or higher.

 

[the_ice_queen]

FYI there are plenty of commercial ice carvers out there already using a CNC to create their ice sculptures. This is not a new idea. It is an expensive way to do it but pays off if you have a large enough market. And they achieve crystal clear sculptures by feeding in sheets of crystal clear carving quality ice.