Feature Friday No. 10 – And the Oscar goes to…

…Casting with the help of 3D Printing

Welcome back to this week’s Feature Friday! Whether or not one is a fan of the Academy Awards, there is no way of avoiding this annual spectacle. This year we were actually very excited about the Oscars. Not only because Leonardo DiCaprio could finally bring his first award home but also because the statue itself was returning to its roots – with the help of 3D printing.

As explained in detail in the article of Chloe Olewitz from Digital Trends this year’s Oscar statues were inspired by the original 1920s design. In order to capture the subtle details of the statuette, the Academy decided to introduce some digital age technology in the manufacturing process. The 1929 Oscar statue itself was scanned and then 3D printed on a MultiJet Printer. A rubber mould was created from the brand new plastic Oscar, from which wax positive form bases were cast and ceramic mould shells created – which were then filled with liquid bronze.

But could this process also be utilized by you?

Definitely! At DimensionAlley we already realized several projects where we combined traditional casting with 3D printing technology. Numerous rings as shown in the pictures above were created with Sharebot’s Voyager printer and the lost-wax technique (for further information read Feature Friday No. 8). But we also made rings which we covered with silicone in order to create a casting mold for materials with lower melting temperatures.

What is the advantage of this technology-combination?

The main reason for combining various technologies with 3D printing is the utilization of their specific strengths. On the one hand the 3D scanning and 3D printing technology enables you to create exact duplicates of already existing objects or to create new, outstanding designs. The casting technique on the other hand provides a cost and time-efficient way for producing bigger quantities of e.g. metal objects.

Do you want to experiment with the combination of different manufacturing techniques? Write us, call us or simply stop by in our 3D printing Café in Berlin and we would be glad to support you with your project and create a link to already 3D experienced casting partners.

See you next week to a new episode of our Feature Friday and enjoy your weekend!