VOVA Lamp

Organizer: Google + i-Materialise

Location: Bridge for Emerging Contemproary Art – NM, USA

Status: Competition Win + Completed 2010

Responsibilities: Digital Design and Visualization

Fabrication: Materialise

VOVA_Lamp_Description:

The initial driving mission of the VOVA Lamp was to push the boundaries of the selective laser sintering 3D printing technology. This allowed the VOVA lamp’s concept to be feasibly driven and developed using a minimal surface tiling algorithm optimizing the object’s form and the lamp’s function. Once a base module was formulated, the geometry was tiled radially 10 times and resulted in a continuous flow of material.

The design, shadow, and illumination led to an honorable mention and exhibition at the Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Art. Also, Google and the leading 3D printing fabrication company, Materialise, awarded and the Vova Lamp and sponsored the  first prototype of the design.

VOVA_Lamp_Material:

The material used to fabricate the lamp is a plastic polyamide: white, strong, flexible and ideal for lamps because of its high mechanical and thermal resistance. The selective laser sintering process can make very complex designs, both large and small. The VOVA lamp’s printable details push the limits of machine and material with the material thickness starting at 1mm thin.

VOVA_Lamp_Fabrication_Process:

The technique used to fabricate the VOVA lamp is through Laser Sintering a plastic polyamide. With laser Sintering designs are printed layer by layer by a laser that draws thin lines in a polyamide powder. The laser beam precisely places enough energy to melt the powder, bonding together to form a thin layer of the model. After a layer is placed down, a new layer of fresh powder is spread over the surface by a roller until the process yields the perfectly accurate VOVA lamp.