21/05/19
Today I had a laser cutting session booked for 10:00am. The night before I finished off my rhino file in which I implemented my bending application into my sleeping platform design. I decided to go with the third style of kerf as it allowed the material to bend easily in two different directions. I have included several photos of my rhino file and laser cutting process below.
The style of this particular kerf patten required me to uses a large amount of lines, this means the laser cutting time goes up substantially
After a couple hours of waiting for the laser cutter to do it thing It was finally done. At first I was not sure what to expect and to be completely honest I wasn’t super confident in the bending ability actually working. However I was pleasantly surprised as when i picked it up out of the bed it instantly bent, much more than I expected!!
Unfortunately The frame in which I intended the kerf to bend around was much too small. The kerfed panels, although very flexible were unable to bend around the tight curves.
One possible solution could be to decrease the size of the cutout shape and make it more frequent. So for example it is 3 and a half deep, doubling that to 7 deep could help to make it bend more. Another possible solution could be to keep the current kerf panels and alter the frame to accommodate. This would be the quicker option in regards to laser cutting time, but I do feel as if this is a bit if a cop out.
Nevertheless I have booked another laser cutting session for Tuesday the 4th, hopefully I will have a new and improved version of my model to cut out by then!
AUT SPATIAL DESIGN 