It may not appear to be a happy marriage but for a team of University of Wollongong researchers and a Scarborough designer, the pairing of art and science has worked successfully.
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Metalsmith Cinnamon Lee and Dr Stephen Beirne, a research fellow from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, have teamed up to use 3D printing to create jewellery.
Ms Lee approached the team with an engineering challenge, asking for help to produce a series of titanium rings and brooches from her designs.
Dr Beirne said the request was ‘‘left-field’’ for the team, who had mainly used the printer for their own research.
‘‘We were mainly making medical and biomechanics componentry so this was definitely something different,’’ he said.
‘‘We really jumped at the chance to use the printer in a practical way – our team does have a creative flair, we have a designer on board so we do appreciate that artistic touch.’’
To produce the jewellery, a printing process called selective laser melting deposits and fuses titanium powder layer by layer on a metal bed, following the 3D model drawn on special software.
When it’s finished, the excess powder is blasted away, revealing the final object.
Ms Lee said the process had opened up new ways of working with 3D technology and materials.
‘‘I’d been using 3D modelling for over a decade; I started generating 3D technical drawings but I really wanted to work more closely with titanium,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ve always been motivated by a desire to make stuff that you can’t do with traditional skills and to do what hasn’t been done before and this seemed like a really good way to do that.
‘‘We’ve made very strong, accurate objects on a really tiny scale ... we’re breaking new ground.’’
While the use of 3D printing is starting to grow across many industries, Ms Lee said the technique would never replace more traditional art forms and was simply another tool in the tool box.
‘‘It’s definitely not a take-over situation,’’ she said.
‘‘Pieces don’t look finished when they come out, there is a level of hand finishing that goes on but it’s great to understand how other things work and use them to complement other skills.’’
The UOW team has also used 3D printing to create musical instruments, along with medical implant devices.
