A material surface for the facade of the University of Hertfordshire’s Science Building

The Science Building, on the one hand, fully expresses its function through a maximum reduction of
the elements, while on the other, the choice of an ‘emotional’ coating, linked to materials that resonate with revisited local traditions, addressing the facade’s theme with suggestive implications. The building’s ‘skin’ - with the exclusion of the north wall - is composed of a double facade whose external part is composed of rectangular modules of drilled metal panels, which, in addition to acting as solar shades, create a ‘waved’ effect thanks to the disposition “open/close“ of the rectangular panels. The internal wrapper is a glass parallelepiped with exposed steel stringcourses.

The southwest corner marks the entrance, obtained by a hollowing out both the parallelepiped in bottom half as well as the top half, in which a symbolic tree will be placed.
The characteristic coating of the drilled metal panels is obtained with a special powder coating- Patina collection by Adapta Color, based in Pensicola, Spain, color Turquoise Cooper - accentuates the facades dynamic ‘wave’ effect which varies with the incidence of the light and the perspective of the observer. The bicolor effect obtained is very ‘material’ as it creatively reproduces oxidized copper.
The low environmental impact powder coating creates a suggestive effect, which would otherwise be difficult to achieve, except and at an extremely high cost, using copper, the inspired material.

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Organic or inorganic “Patina”?

In some areas of Southern Europe among architects is widespread a material launched in the 30s b y

the United States Steel Corporation, patented under the name Cor-Ten (originally, a low alloy steel with 0.2 -0.5 % copper, 0.5-1.5% chromium and 0.1-0.2% phosphorus).

Born as a material able to self-protect from electrochemical corrosion, it changed over the years, in order to obtain good structural properties (yield strength up to 580 MPa), both characteristics that

have convinced many designers to use it, for example, for bridges’ building, first in the United States, then in Europe.

Recently architects committed to civil building urban design and other decorative applications began to use the Cor-Ten steel (in the United States, the different types available in the market are called

weathering steels) both for the belief of using a high strength material and without maintenance, and for its aesthetic appearance, regarded as the result of a “natural” aging and thus inherently “real” or “true”, and not artificially produced or modified by man as some industrial processes for surface decoration. 

Unfortunately, some of these features are more the result of a well-designed communication rather than the result of the analysis of objective figures.

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3D PRINTING BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY: how are the implications for finishing?

3D printing is one of the fashio­nable “technologies” and accor­ding to many it will fundamen­tally change the way we produce.

The futurologists speculate a scena­rio where traditional factories will di­sappear, swept by a wave of a wide­spread” electronically craft”, able to manufacture small batches (ideally 1 item) of customized products accor­ding to customer requirements.

Someone will remind when in 2000, with the internet spread, we said that traditional stores would disappear.... It did not happen, but the world of bu­siness is still fundamentally changed.

In this article we will try to under­stand the possible implications for manufacturing, and then for fini­shing, starting with the understan­ding of the technology and clarifying some of the words that are beco­ming fashionable.

3D PRINTING

3D printing, refers to various pro­cesses used to create an object by adding successive layers of material

We can see two kind of printing:

• Extrusion or material deposition: various layers are created and depo­sited one after the other to “create” the object.
• For sintering or hardening of mate­rial: in this case, usually with a laser, the object is drawn within paints or powder coating which are hardened by the laser.

In both cases the object is created through layers, as if we would build a mountain adding one section above the other corresponding to the con­tour lines.

The printer receives as input a 3D model of the object to create, re­presented according to a standard language - there are more than one - and it is able to decode the informa­tion into movement instructions for its moving parts, exactly like a paper printer is able to move its head to print a file from a computer.

Let’s see the benefits - typical of the digital transformation of any process – compared to the “traditional” pro­duction:

• Flexibility and cost-effectiveness in particular for small batches: tools and moulds are not required.
• Despecialization: the 3D printer replaces several equipment and traditional processes. For example in a single operation we can create complex shapes which would requi­re material removal after casting or moulding, or even the production of many parts to be assembled.
• Zero or minimum setup time or however minimal: just load the 3D model of the object, and you can start.
• Scalability: with less than 1000 Euros now it is possi­ble to buy home printers for plastic, to create industrial models
• Possibility to create complex objects larger than the printer, dividing them into many parts to be produced on the same printer. Usually the design software supports the division in parts from the finished product

As regards the materials, the most use one is plastic and to follow metal. Then there are applications still on test for wood, food (for example printing of chocolate pra­lines), the electronic circuits, and even the molecules, with achievements in biotechnology or nanotechnology sectors.

The fields of application are extremely various: some are very specialized, such as the prosthetics sectors, with already a good spread in the dental industry, but also in cardiology or artificial limbs sector. Jewellery, and in particular furniture and home accessories industry.

We can even mention buildings created with printers for concrete (opening picture). And of course the industry at large, which we will talk about later.

I would like to end this brief overview on the technology with some considerations.

The first is that it is a rapidly evolving technology. I do not exclude that in a few months there will be innova­tions that overcome the considerations reported in this article. It is hard to draw conclusions, because we are “photographing” an evolving situation.

The second is that technology, even we can imagine ex­tremely interesting application areas, and it is still rather “primitive.”

Chris Anderson, in the book “Makers” to which I refer those who want to know more about this topic, draws a parallel with the traditional desktop printing: today we have at home, for a few hundred Euros, laser printers with photo-quality level; but do you remember the mid- 80’s dot matrix printers?

So we can think that riding on what we call the ‘long wa­ves of innovation, in thirty years or maybe earlier some of the applications, that today are only feasible, will be­come possible. Therefore it is important to distinguish the myths from reality.

Condividere (Sharing)

Our society has always more the need to share: in every field from culture to communication from economy to the company, the trend is to exchange knowledge and experience across the board. In some fields the principles of sharing and participa­tion are emerging strongly, for example as part of the professional work and the start-up (which often use the co-working formulas), in architecture (which, in theory is the “cradle” of the spirit of sharing of the city’s deve­lopment choices with the society).

In our industry – which is “widespread” and “infiltrated” in many areas, as we deal with finishing” - the concept of “sharing” is far from being applied. Normally we speak of “copy”, which is totally different.

We begin to perceive the first changes, as companies resume to communicate and to inform the market, pa­raphrasing an old movie, “starting over by three”: the exhibitions, after the escape of the last years, start again to be crowded (both with exhibitors and visitors); they start again to “advertise” – in the same old way but with new media use; conferences, events, classes are very attended again.

Some companies, such as Sirca and Lechler, which need more than others to take the challenge with worlds not really related to their industry (such as design and archi­tecture, and its main protagonists, the architects and de­signers) participating actively at the Milan design week (from 12 to 17 April); the first with a series of installations housed in the Cloister of the Diocesan Museum (which is part of the 5 Vie path), between art and industry; the second carrying on the dialogue started last year in a the “laboratory of ideas” in the Lambrate-Ventura area.

To exchange and to share their self knowledge and skills will be essential to overtake the deadlock of the manu­facturing industry too highly “engineered”, but at the same time not shared. New ways of communication to reach new “opinion makers” (always to use a word no longer used) will create new ideas and opportunities.