Digital Manufacturing Class – Ecolops Tile

This planter concept for chia seeds was designed as an example for students from the Digital Manufacturing Class in order to show the maximum capacities of the 3-axis CNC milling machine that the Technion operates.

Each cell from the tile was first designed as a 3d geometry in Rhino 3D and then through grasshopper was populated onto a double curved geometry surface to create a complex 3D tile.
the tile was first 3D printed to get an idea about the proportions and physical geometry of the tile.
The process of creating this tile included 3 main steps: Rationalization, Optimization, and Manufacturing.
the tile was first 3D rationalized to make it fit for CNC milling, the process included: reversing the “positive” geometry to “negative” geometry as a mold, fixing extraction angles, geometry adjustments, max height adjustment to fit the CNC capabilities, Etc.
Secondly, the tile was optimized for CNC milling, the process included CAD and CAM adjustments to ensure the success of the milling process, we had a few failures that were fixed by thicking the walls and points of the geometry.
Thirdly, Manufacturing was composed of 3 main steps, (1) Manufacturing of the mold from styrofoam by CNC milling, (2) Casting the concrete in the mold and drying over 1 week, (3) Extracting the concrete tile from the mold, *the mold did not survive the process and was destroyed upon extraction.

overall the project was a success and was the basis for 18 student projects.

3D design rationaliztion procces

Project by:

Assoc. Prof. Jacob (Yasha) GrobmanAssociate Professor

yasha@tx.technion.ac.il

Work facilitation

Yasha J. Grobman is the former dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion. Prof. Grobman has over 20 years of activity in architectural research and practice that is related to architectural technology, especially in developing computational tools and methods for innovative computer-aided architectural design, evaluation, and fabrication. Grobman published over 80 papers in scientific journals and conferences and received numerous awards in sustainability research and design.

Design computation
Performance-oriented architectural design
Sustainable architectural design
Human spatial perception/emotions
Computer-aided manufacturing
Mycelium in architectural and industrial design

Project by:

Arc. Ezra OzeryHead of labs

ezraozery@technion.ac.il

Work facilitation

Ezra Ozery has a B. arc from the Technion and M.sc in Industrial Design from the Technion. Ezra has more than 10 years of experience in teaching a variety of 2d and 3d software to academia and enterprises.
Ezra's academic pursuits are in the fields of Virtual Architecture and the Metaverse:
Ezra's master's thesis is on the subject of “Gamification of the rehabilitation process through Virtual Reality” and offers a unique hybrid aptitude in VR gaming and complex generative 3D design and manufacturing.

Project by:

Eng. Igor FelzerDigital Manufacturing Manager and T-COM lab Manager

igorfe@technion.ac.il

Work facilitation

Igor is an experienced mechanical engineer who graduated from the Mechanical Engineering faculty in the Technion, working for almost 20 years in design and manufacturing. Igor also graduated from the Haifa University MBA program, developing his business and management skills.