Genius 100

Project Story

Challenge

The Genius 100 Foundation was established by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, who take care of Albert Einstein's archive in Toronto, to commemorate the centenary of the publication of the theory of relativity. They commissioned Architect / Designer Ron Arad to design and produce a commemorative object in the form of a book which contained 100 pages each one written by an eminent individual describing how Albert Einstein influenced the World. Ron Arad suggested that in the spirit of Einstein's legacy of pushing the boundaries of human understanding, this book should be 3D printed..... as a single piece. The challenge was to produce a large scale object (400 x 300 x 150mm) that demands a clean and functioning result without warping. That was the challenge for just one copy. The requirement was for 200 of them....

Approach

SLS (Industrial) was chosen as the most appropriate technology for several reasons. Firstly, the book could be built support free, with only powder needing to be removed from the finished object (most crucially around the hinge / spine). The pages needed to flexible, mimicking the quality of cartridge paper. This can be achieved when printing with SLS in thin sections. SLS industrial produces bright white parts, ideal for a publication.

Solution

The hinge and page turning performance was tested with tens of small test parts, with slightly different page thicknesses and space between sheets. These small test parts also offered the opportunity to test different fonts and font sizes to assess legibility. It was also decided to stencil cut the text through each sheet which reduced the mass of molten plastic in an attempt to reduce warping. It was proposed that to read the stencil cut text, the reader would hold a sheet of black card behind the page. Also the even out the heat distribution throughout the build, it was resolved to print the book vertically where each layer would have a similar sinter density. If it were printed horizontally the sections through pages would be solid (hot) and the space between pages would be empty (cold) which would cause warping.

Outcome

The outcome was a beautifully crisp fully functioning book. Two books were built in a single build, taking five days to sinter, two days to cool down and one day each to de-powder. The next challenge was to do this 99 more times! Watch the Launch video below to see Genius 100 in action.