| Ceramics artists have technology breakthrough |
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| Written by By DAVID DUPONT Arts & Entertainment Editor | ||||||
| Thursday, 01 April 2010 10:13 | ||||||
This tea bowl though was created using innovative technology developed by Balistreri and two students in the Bowling Green School of Art. They have created techniques that promise to give the use of rapid prototype copiers a whole new dimension. The printers create objects in three dimensions and are almost exclusively used for models and other temporary items. What Balistreri has developed is the powder and binder that will allow the creation of permanent art work, and possibly other objects including replacement bones, dental caps as well bricks and tiles. Z Corporation, the Boston-area company that makes the printers is currently testing the materials. The results are on display in the undergraduate show on exhibit through Saturday at BGSU. Greg Pugh, who has been working with Balistreri on the project, used it to create elements for his large ceramic sculptures. His pieces, which hang from the ceiling are large grey structures that look like cages or maybe satellites. Inside are intricate finely tooled gears. These inner parts were created using the powder and binder developed in the School of Art. Holding a piece of student work that's a swirl of uniform spirals, looking something like an complicated sea shell, Balistreri notes that the printer makes this possible.
His creation of that tea bowl, which he displayed in the National Ceramics exhibit in California, highlighted what he sees as the historic nature of the new technology. The tea bowl is a revered form in ceramics. Balistreri first created a bowl using the traditional techniques, of which he is a master. Then he scanned the bowl to create a 3-D computer file. That file was imported to the printer, and using the powder and binder developed at BGSU, a new bowl, was formed. The bowl still needed to be fired. So in another ancient to modern twist, Balistreri fired it in the Anagama wood-fired kiln, a technology that dates back to the very beginnings of ceramics, to create a bowl not identical, but very close to the original. Getting to that point though took a lot of testing. Sebastien Dion, then an art graduate student, first brought the idea to Balistreri in 2006. He was working on a ZCorp 3-D rapid prototyping machine in the College of Technology, and wondered about the applications to art. As artists they were curious about how it may be able to make permanent objects. "I know about clay," Balistreri said, "and Sebastien knew all about the machine." "There's a sensitivity to the material that I have," Balistreri said. "Thousands of pounds of clay have moved through my fingers." Without even looking at the printer, Balistreri started having Dion experiment with different materials. What followed was a long period of "artistic experimentation." The major problem facing them was finding material that wouldn't shrink too much when it was fired in a kiln. Because it contains organic material, all clay shrinks when fired, Balistreri said. It was a matter of keeping shrinkage to an acceptable level. Initially the shrinkage was extreme, now Pugh, a graduating senior who will continue next year with the project as a research technician, said the product from the printer, shrinks about as much as ceramics handled the usual way. "No one is as close as we are to bringing this to application," Balistreri said. The School of Art purchased its own rapid prototyping printer with a technical innovation enhancement grant from the state, and Balistreri has secured a follow up grant to continue the studies.
Eventually a company could be spun off to commercialize the innovations with the developers and the university sharing any profits. Balistreri said he's been contacted from people all around the world curious about the development and interested in a range of possible applications. Scott Harmon, vice president of business development at Z Corporation, said the testing of the BGSU product is in its initial stages. "The first batch came out OK." The material will be subjected to "rigorous testing," he said "Over the next two, three months, we'll have a good idea of the potential." Further testing to make sure the process is consistently repeatable and can work under a variety of conditions will determine if and what applications it can be used for. "What John has clearly shown is that the combination of his material and our printers are very valuable for ceramics," Harmon said. "That's beyond dispute." On the Net: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmVLQHAH-V4 |
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