BPro RC 5+6 2016/17_Clay Robotics-V&A Tiles by SoomeenHahm Design

V&A TILES

Digital Clay Tiles for V&A Museum

Tutors: Daniel Widrig Guan Lee Soomeen Hahm Stefan Bassing Igor Pantic Adam Holloway TeAM members: Hao Li Wenyan Zhao Jialin Tang Xinnan Zhao Zizhuo Su Heyoung Um Jiawei Xi Xiangheng Min

CLAY ROBOTICS INTRODUCTION HAO LI, XIANGHENG MIN, JIALIN TANG, ZIZHUO SU,

HEYOUNG UM, JIAWEI XI, WENYAN ZHAO, XINNAN ZHAO Clay has been a widely used material for centuries as it is easily available, cheap, and plastic in application. This is especially true when clay is used in digital fabrication, as the digital extruding process makes non-standard designs possible to fabricate in a relatively easy and quick manner. This shows the potential and ability for mass customization or “quick-prototypes”. Industrial robotic arms have been widely used in architecture for many years, and work has been undertaken exploring the possibilities of automated fabrication in highly efficient and innovative ways in order to discover the potential of the materials in digital fabrication. When clay meets the robotic arm, the interaction between them is unstoppable. The robotic arm at Grymsdyke Farm is a KUKA KR210, which can move in 6 different axes. However, at the present time, ceramic printing is always printed layer by layer; the extruder is basically used only perpendicular to the platform. The robotic arm has therefore not been taken full advantage of. Testing, designing, and printing ceramic components in ways that go beyond the layer technique is therefore the main subject of this study. One of the fabrication modes in which they are used is large-scale 3D printing. However, due to the limitations of the equipment, techniques, and materials, industrial robotic arm clay printing has remained relatively stagnant. Due to the innovation in robotic arm clay

printing, the projects this year have been achieved by the use of “Space” clay printing with support. Clay could never be produced in as quick and solid in a way using existing technology, so the aim became to control the robotic arm to facilitate printing along with the support, letting the nozzle climb on the surface. An analogy for this would be people walking on the earth, who would always be drawn toward the centre of the earth due to the gravity. With this technique, a shell-shaped component could be achieved. Thus, the robotic arm could be used to work in a freer way, and instead of relying on layer-by-layer texturing, other textures could be introduced. This year, the group has four projects, including V&A Tiles, Funicular Clay Shingles, Catenoid Aggregates and Manifold Assemblies. For the V&A Museum project, more than 2000 tiles are produced by robotic arm, which is the first mass digital fabrication of clay. The Funicular Clay Shingles form the baseis for the following two projects. As for the Manifold Assemblies, the tridimensional clay components are combined with wood frame and fabricated by the method of CNC carving and slip casting. And the fourth one is printed by robotic technique to realize the actual 3D clay printing. With the development of the technique innovated, this group achieved the clay application and digital fabrication in the actual construction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 INTRODUCTION > Background of V&A Museum > Remolding the V&A Shop > Digital Fabrication Tiles

02 DESIGN PROTOTYPE > Introduction > Design Prototype > Pattern Plans

03 DIGITAL FABRICATION > Introduction > Influence Factors > Prototype of Clay Extrusion > Fabrication Prototype

04 MATERIAL TEST > Introduction > Drying > Firing > Glazing > Shrinkage and Reject Rate

05 PRODUCTION AND INSTALLATION > Introduction > Making Process > Numbering > Packing

06 APPENDIX

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL

INTRODUCTION > Background of V&A Museum > Remolding the V&A Shop > Digital Fabrication Tiles

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL

INTRODUCTION [Background]

Cooperation This project at V&A museum is aiming to update the old tiles in the main gift shop. In the compitetion, Friend and Company architects won the chance to remodle the interior shop The coorperation between the Voctoria and Albert Museum, Friend and Company and the Bartlett shcool plays a crutial role for the whole process. V&A Musem and the Friend and Company are planning to install some art crafts, specifically, the tiles on the ground. For the students from the Bartlett shcool, their task is to design the pattern and farbricate all the tiles based on their requirements.

F. 8

Introduction of V&A Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), London, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as "Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001.

01-03 Artworks in V&A 04

V&A building

04 Available at:<http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/victoria-albert-museum>

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL

INTRODUCTION

[Remolding the V&A Shop]

Current Shop

Centre Gargen

Main Gift shop

Main Hall

Main Entrance Ground Floor Plan of V&A Museum Available at:<http://artysmartyshop.com/bursting-with-history-the-va-shop/>

The figure on this page is the ground floor plan of V&A Museum. The central axis goes trough the main entrance, the main hall, the main gift shop, and the centre garden, where there is quite a large flow of visitors and tourists. The gray area, stands for the main gift shop, is at a crutial centre of the whole plan, therefore the tiles in the shop is easily to be seen after installation, thus should be delicately designed in a modern way. The V&A mian gift shop was located behind the mian hall of the museum. Now the decoration of this shop is pretty classic. Inside the shop, the space is divided into 3 parts by the colums. White is the main color of the shop.

Current Main Shop

http://artysmartyshop.com/bursting-with-history-the-va-shop/

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 11

INTRODUCTION

[Remolding the V&A Shop]

New Shop

The project is part of the V&A’s ongoing restoration and redesign known as ‘FuturePlan’, creating new settings for the V&A’s collections and visitor facilities while restoring much of the building’s original architecture. In the plan of the main gift shop, the four sides are open to the other area, including China Gallery, Island Middle East Gallery, the Main Hall and the Centre Garden. There are three kinds of overall tile patterns such the four strips nest to the south wall and north wall, the "U" near the Centre Garden and a square near the Main Hall.

New Design of V&A Museum Shop

Available at<http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/victoria-albert-museum>

New Plan of V&A Museum Shop

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 13

INTRODUCTION [Traditional Tiles]

Material-- Clay "Clay" is a broad term describing a family of naturally occurring materials that have unique compositional and properties and when fired become ceramic. Clay is a boundantly available across the globe, primarity composed of alumina, silica and water, and formed naturally over grological time periods through the decomposition of igneous rocks, especially granite, into feldspar through weathering and chemical action. Combined with a chemical action. Over time, first craftsman and later chemists and material scientist developed highly specialized knowledge that today allows for the design of "Clay Bodies" blends of different clays and addictives in response to projectspecific needs. When combined with firing techniques that regulate temperature profiles over time, the resulting ceramic materials are highly custtomizable, with significant variations in density, porosity, strength, and thermal properties.

Clay 1

Clay 2

011

022

01 Clay for making tiles 02 Clay for making pots 03 Clay for maiking art works

033 Available at:<https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=CLAY&source=lnms&tbm=isch&s a=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3_bv2-d_SAhVnCMAKHazOB5IQ_AUIBigB&biw=1536&bih=735 #imgrc=Q4hC41Mu-8-oiM:>

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 15

INTRODUCTION [Digital Fabrication Tiles]

3D Clay Printing The industrial robot processes the distinctive feature that its mechanical arm, which can carry out rapid and highly movements, can reach a nearly infinite number of points freely in three-dimensional space. Generally KUKA, ABB and Universal Robots is used in these robot-supported materialisation processes. And in the past few years,a serious of researches and practices of robotic fabrication in architecture have succeed, all of those show the big future of the robotic fabrication. Our project is based on the 2015-2016 stdudents work, so the robot, the extruder and the pump we use is the same with their work. At the begining of this term, we learned the fabrication techich from the senior students. The pump we used is made by Vesteco Company. And the robot we use is KUKA KR210.

01 Noozle 02 Extruder 03 Extruder

04 Pump 05 KUKA robot

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 17

INTRODUCTION [Digital Fabrication Tiles] Material Research During our project, the clay we used are basically two types. The first one is for 3D-printing which is made by a local factory. According to the condition of clay is different in each time, we should add different amount of water. After several experiments, we confirm the data of the weight of 1 liter clay - 1.940kg to 1.970kg, including the weight of the counting cup (62g).This kind of clay can be extruded smoothly but it wont flow when the nozzle is pausing at a centain monment during printing, rendering us to print several lines in one file, which gives more options to design the toolpath. The second type of clay is superwhite which is used for rolling the base. It has appropriate hardness, flexibilaty, and speed of drying so that it is easy to shape is by hand or some tools such as roller and knife.

032

01 Measuring clay 02 Printing clay 03 Tile base clay

Conclusion According to the previous work and technich, we are planning to use design the tile in a digital way by which I mean to sript the pattern and toolpath, afterwards print it out by robotic, which we call it digital fabrication. Specifically, there are some advantages of robotic arm printing such as accuracy, no need for measuring and mould, various pattern, working continuiously, etc. It is a advanced method to design and fabricate the architectural elements, which gives us more posibillities and choices. It stands for the trend of future of the ways of people building up their architecture.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 19

DESIGN PROTOTYPE > Introduction > Design Prototype > Pattern Plans

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 21

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Introduction]

Introduction In the previous years, tile pattern design was based on the natrual patterns and normally drawed by hand. This way of design is not accurate and hard to apply to the tile making. Now the computer technic has developed a lot, people began to generate different patterns through computer software. Like rihno, Grasshoper, Processing and Maya. Our tile pattern design is based on the computer technology and using rihno and garsshoper as our tool. It is much accurate and changeable due to the differnt parameters. Alao, we use the subdivision of original pattern logic to digitalize the natural flower patterns. It is much linear and simple than the original patterns.

01 Traditional tile design 02 Digital tile design

022 Available at :< http://www.picrevise.com/?image=http://www.cambium.on.ca/ images/tile_floor2.jpg&title=Tile%20Patterns%20For%20Floors%20Catalog%20 of%20Patterns&tag=clay%20tile%20designs>

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 23

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Design Prototype]

Design Prototype 1 This design is relying on the Grasshoper software. First, we generate a few affecting lines, and subdivided the space between the lines. Second, a grid is generated by grasshoper. Then the shortest pathes was selected by the process. Finally, generating the offset lines between the line gaps.

Affect Lines

Subdivided

Grid

Shortest Path

Offset

This pattern is generated by the grasshoper prosess, and subdivided into square parts.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 25

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Design Prototype]

This pattern is generated by the grasshoper prosess, and subdivided into differnt parts according to the generated paths.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 27

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Design Prototype]

Design Prototype 2 We abstract the original pattern by computer program and imitate each parts into a linear pattern. Then we mirror the patterns. It looks just like the flower showing in the original pattern.

Original

Digitalize

Mirror

This pattern is generated imitation. And the pattern is subdivided into aquare parts. AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 29

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 31

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Design Prototype]

Design Prototype 3 This pattern design is based on the natural flower pattern given by V&A museum. We digitalize the pattern through subdivision logic to mosaic the pattern and find the darker edges of these mosaic. Then, the pattern is generated. But, in oder to printing clay, we simplify the pattern. Finally, generating the offset lines between the line gaps.

Original

Digitalize

Simplify

Offset

This pattern is generated by the subdivision logic and subdivided into square parts. AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 33

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 35

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Pattern Plans]

Pattern Plan 1

Pattern Plan 2

Pattern Plan 3

Pattern Plan 4

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 37

DESIGN PROTOTYPE [Pattern Plans]

Pattern Plan 5 38

Pattern Plan 6 AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 39

DIGITAL FABRICATION > Introduction > Influence Factors > Prototype of Clay Extrusion > Fabrication Prototype

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 41

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Introduction]

Introduction Digital fabrication is a process that joins design with production through the use subtractive manufacturing processes. 3D printing falls under additive, while machining falls under subtractive. These tools allow designers to produce material digitally, which is something greater than an image on screen, and actually tests the accuracy of the software and computer lines. In our project, we are willing to print out abstract patterns on diffenrent tiles by the robotic arm, after which can be assembled into a overall pattern based on our design. The robot clay extruding program was writtern by Vicentee Soler. Also thanks to Philip Morell and Tibault Schwartz who are the grasshoper plugin desiners.

01 Traditional tile making 02 Digital tile making

02 Available at :< https://www.pinterest.com/explore/handmade-tiles/>

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 43

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Influencing factors]

Factor 1

Factor 2

Noozle Size

Noozle size affects the width of the extruded clay and the tile performance.

Noozle Height

Noozle hight affects the thickness and width of the extruded clay at the same time, as well as the surface of extruded clay lines.

Factor 3

Factor 4

Tool Path

Tool path affects the time of printing and the tile performances such as the dot that the nozzle leave at the time it start and end.

Pattern

Pattern affects the time and performances of printing, the more complex, the more the time it needs because the nozzle has to jump for more times, thus leaving more dots.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 45

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Prototype of Clay Extrusion]

Printing Prototype 1

Outcome

Nozzle Size

Nozzle Height

Tool Path Gap

3mm

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 47

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Evolution of Toolpath]

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 49

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Fabrication Prototype]

Printing Prototype 1

Layers

Nozzle Size

Tool Path

Small Gap

Big Gap

Tile Height

3mm

Step 1

3mm

5mm

20mm

Time

Problem

1. Costing too much printing time. 2. Tile base is fragile. 3. Big gap is too deep to clean.

Outcome

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 51

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Fabrication Prototype]

Printing Prototype 2

Layers

Nozzle Size

Tool Path

Small Gap

Big Gap

Tile Height

7mm

Step 2

5.5mm

8mm

16mm

Time

Problem

1. Costing too much printing time. 2. Too much samll dots. 3. The big gap is too big. 4. Bad looking.

Outcome

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 53

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Fabrication Prototype]

Printing Prototype 3

Layers

Nozzle Size

Tool Path

Small Gap

Big Gap

Tile Height

7mm

Step 3

5mm

8mm

18mm

Time

Problem

1. Costing a little much printing time. 2. Too many samll holes. 3. Lines are too fat.

Outcome

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 55

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Fabrication Prototype]

Printing Prototype 4

Layers

Nozzle Size

Tool Path

Small Gap

Big Gap

Tile Height

3mm

Step 4

5mm

7mm

15mm

Time

Problem

1. Base height control is difficult. 2. The big gap is too big.

Outcome

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 57

DIGITAL FABRICATION [Conclusion]

Conclusion After various test, we find the best way of making tiles. The prototype 8 and 14 are much beautiful than the others. But, the well printed pattern is not the only purpose of our project. Due to they are the real tiles which is used on the floor, so we need to consider some other facts like cleaning and safety. Finally, we choose the prototype 14 as our final plan in oder to same more time to mass production.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 59

MATERIAL TEST > Introduction > Drying > Firing > Glazing > Shrinkage and Reject Rate

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 61

MATERIAL TEST [Introduction]

Introduction At this stage, the printing tiles are tested how to be dry, fired and glazed in the best condition. The first step is drying the tiles, where many problems were found. The previous method to dry caused a seriously high rate of deformation, when we put paper under the tiles. So wooden board replaced the paper to put tiles on, however, the edges of tiles still bended. Then we tried to keep the tiles drying at a slow speed, and kept the bottom and top surface in the same condition. Therefore, another wooden board covered the top surface while plastic film cover the whole tile. After solving the deformation, we considered about how to enhance the efficiency. At last, plasterboard was used to cover the tiles when we compared three methods. Secondly, when we fired the tiles, it is very significant to find what is the best temprature and time to hold in the kiln. According the research last year, we improved during the test and got a better outcome with lower reject rate. Thirdly, different components were test to glaze the tiles, and we got many different colors. We discussed the color with the project leader of V&A museum and decided to use the warm-white one. Therefore, solving the problems of material transforming, the tiles can be producted successfully by the final method we found.

01 Dying 02 Firing 03 Glazing

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 63

MATERIAL TEST [Drying]

Problem During the process of drying, the printing tiles should cope with many problems like deformation, crack and fragmentation, because the clay is hard to dry equably. Those problems are recorded and solved step by step. Because of our improvement, the rate of deformation decreased significantly.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 65

MATERIAL TEST [Drying]

Material Process of Test â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Method 1

Paper

Base 1

Printing by robot

Wooden board

Printing

Problem

Outcome

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 67

MATERIAL TEST [Drying]

Cover Method Test

Before

A. wood board

wood board

After B. wood board

C. wood board

fish wire

paper

Cover Method

Turn over

Drying Time

3 days

Easy-to-handle Deformation D. wood board

plastic film

Reject Rate

70%

8 days

5 days

8 days

12 days

50%

60%

40%

10%

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 69

MATERIAL TEST [Drying]

Process of Test â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Method 2 Material

Machine

Base 2

Printing

Cover Material

Method

Outcome

Plastic film

After 2 days

Wooden board

Carve lightly

After 1 days

After 4 days

Plasterboard

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 71

Brushing watery clay on the surface of base in order to glue two different clays together, the base clay and the printing clay.

Scratching the surface makes the printing clay stick to the base better.

After 2 days

Covering another wood board keep the two sides drying at the same speed, because the wood board has a good water-absorbing quality.

After 1 days

Carving the back side is good way to decrease the deformation.

Covering the plasterboard to replace the wooden ones make the clay drying slowly and equably in order to decrease the deformation.

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 73

MATERIAL TEST [Drying]

Process of Test Method 1

Method 2

Method 3

Brush watery clay Turn over Carve lightly Wax Cover plastic film

Brush watery clay Turn over Carve lightly Cover plastic film Change cover board

Machine

Base

Cover Material

Process

Drying Time

Turn over Cover plastic film

12 days

9 days

7 days

10%

15%

10-12%

Deformation

Reject Rate Final Method

Ă&#x2014;

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 75

MATERIAL TEST [Firing]

Process of Firing

Glaze

First Firing

Second Firing

Seg

Rate ( ℃/hr)

Temp ( ℃)

Hold ( min)

120

600

100

1000

END

-Reject Rate: 30%

Seg

Rate ( ℃/hr)

Temp ( ℃)

Hold ( min)

240

570

100

1020

END

-Reject Rate: 5%

Kiln for Firing and Glazing AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 77

MATERIAL TEST [Glazing]

Glaze Composition

Coloring oxide combinations

COPPER +

MANGANESE +

COBALT +

Cobalt

blue-green

Vanadium

yellow-green

Rutile

warm or textured green

Nickel

grey-green

Chrome

green

Chrome

brown

Vanadium

yellow-brown

Rutile

brown

Nickel

grey or brown

Copper

brown,black

Chrome

blue-green

Nickel

blue-purple

Rutile

STANNUM +

textured warm blue or greyblue

Chrome

purple

Silicon

pink

Manganese

Resulting color

light pink

Glaze Samples

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 79

MATERIAL TEST [Glazing]

AD RC5&6 AD Material RC5&6Consequences Clay Robotics | UCL 81

MATERIAL TEST [Glazing]

AD RC5&6 AD Material RC5&6Consequences Clay Robotics | UCL 83

MATERIAL TEST

[Shrinkage and Reject Rate]

Shrinkage in Different Stage

PRINTING TILE (ORIGINAL SIZE)

AFTER DRYING

244MM

227 ~ 230MM

SHRINKAGE RATE

0.93-0.94

REJECT RATE

12%

AFTER FIRST FIRING

AFTER SECOND FIRING

222 ~ 224MM

218 ~ 221MM

0.91-0.92

0.89-0.91

8-10%

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 85

PRODUCTION AND INSTALLATION > Introduction > Making Process > Numbering > Packing

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 87

PRODUCTION [Introduction]

Problem of Tile Production and Solution After a large amount of experiments, our team were trying to find an effective method to product adequate tiles with good quality for V&A main gift shop. During this period of a process lasting about half and one month, we improved our productive skills constantly for achieving our final goal. Considering the issue of deadline of our work, we have to make a schedule carefully because this is a real work not just for designing which would involve many important things such as our reputation. Therefore, we planed to product 60 tiles as valid as possible, one essential thing is that we have to mix clay (the raw material) carefully, because once we ignore the quality of clay, we would meet some serious consequences such as the appearence of bubbles which would demage the lines printed on the clay base. During the process of printing tiles with robot, an important thing is solving some problems that how to protect and maintain our tiles. One step of it is to prevent tiles cracking and bending, thus we can guarentee the quality of tiles before biscuit firing. Finally, we research some different kinds of method of glazing to find out a method which is suitable for our time-limited work. Also, we found a factory that help us to accelerate glazing and firing. Fortunately, we learned some useful skills of making tiles.

01 Mixing clay 02 Making clay base 03 Firing

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 89

PRODUCTION [Making Process]

Mixing Clay Our facility of extuding and keeping clay is made in ViscoTec company, contains a large bucket and a pump. The pressure inside of bucket is about 10 - 15 times of normal atmospheric pressure. During process of printing, the error of pressure usually influence the quality of our tiles, if it lose much too pressure, this machine would stop. If air exists in the clay, the clay extruded from the nozzle would crack and damage the pattern seriously.

The quality of the clay we mix depends on the outdoor temperature, the time and evenness of clay in this big bucket in these images. In winter, due to low temperature, the clay in small buckets is very hard, and it is difficult for us to mix, so we need spend more time to guarantee the quality.

Each time we need measure the weight of 1 liter clay we scoop from the bucket. According to the condition of clay is different in each time, we should add different amount of water. After several experiments, we confirm the data of the weight of 1 liter clay - 1.940kg to 1.970kg, including the weight of the counting cup (62g).

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 91

PRODUCTION [Making Process]

Height Adjustment A base for printing onto it is a steel table, its foots can be adjusted by hand. Also, it is very necessary for us to make the steel table flat, or the line we print would not on the same level, some lines thick and some lines thin, that is a unacceptable outcome. Unfortunately, the steel table cannot 100 percent flat at each part, so we tried to find out 3 relatively flat place for printing.

Making Clay Base This clay named superwhite commercial clay which is a basic model clay, and our clay for printing is improved from this one. Why should we use this clay? Because we can save time. Our last version of design showed 5 layers which all printed by robot, and that would spend more time to print. However, time is the main thing that we are lack of.Therefore, we have to figure out this problem through this way, though it does not look as same as the tiles with previous design.

01 Divid the clay 02 Cutting the clay 03 Cutting clay afer rolling

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 93

PRODUCTION [Making Process]

Robotic Arm Clay Printing After all the process praparing for the robotic arm printing. We upload the files into the KUKA computer and set three clay base and waiting for the computer finish printing. It always take about 20-25 min to print 3 tiles at one time. But there always some problems when the robot is printing, like the nozzle is stocked by the small stone or something impurities and the bubble problem, which is caused by the air leaved in the pump tank. So, the printing time is always longer than we thought.

1. Printing 3 tiles at one time 2. Ready for print

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 95

PRODUCTION [Making Process]

Glazing The stable process of glazing is the achievement of large amounts of experiments. We found 1 liter glaze need a liter water to mix. Then, pour it into the filter and stir it well. The glaze should be poured onto the surface of tiles after biscuit firing, filling the seam with glaze. After that, the surface of tiles should be scraped by a tool as imge 14, making it flat and look well. Another way to glaze is to use a machine as image 17, spraying glaze onto the surface of tiles, it is a better way to make glaze even.

[01] [03] [06] [08] [11] [12] [13] [16] [21]

Glaze tub Electric balance Stirring Filter Basin Glazing Scraping Cleaning Spraying

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 97

PRODUCTION

[The Ceramic Factory]

After Second Firing

AD RC5&6 AD Material RC5&6Consequences Clay Robotics | UCL 99

INSTALLATION [Introduction]

After producting all the tiles, the last step is installation. Because it is the real project, so we need to concern about how to enhance the efficiency of construction. Firstly, classifying the patterns and numbering them is helpful and useful for workers to recognize the tiles and install every pattern in the right site. Therefore, we list 64 tiles in one family, and classify every pattern as our list so that the worker will save the time of recognizing the different but similar patterns. Secondly, packing the tiles in boxes needs clear label. So we designed two kinds of different labels to distinguish central patterns and edge patterns, also the labels show the sequence numbers of the tiles in the boxes. When the workers open the boxes, the label will help them to find and certain which number they need. Last, drawing the whole site plan of the main shop shows how to set every pattern in right place. Therefore, the most significant point of this step is helping the workers to finish the installation easily and precisely.

100

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 101

INSTALLATION [Numbering]

Installation Plan of the Main Shop

102

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 103

INSTALLATION [Numbering]

Installation Test

104

AD RC5&6 AD Material RC5&6Consequences Clay Robotics | UCL 105

INSTALLATION [Packing]

Two Delivery Lables

106

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 107

INSTALLATION [Detials of Installation]

108

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 109

110

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 111

APPENDIX

[Production of Souvenirs]

After printing tiles, museum required us to print some souvenirs for their customers. So those vases were printed by robotic arm in the same way that we printed tiles.Because we gain many experiences from the previous tile printing, so the process of souvenirs printing went well.

112

AD RC5&6 AD Material RC5&6Consequences Clay Robotics | UCL 113

APENDIX

[V&A Main Shop]

114

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 115

APENDIX

[V&A Main Shop]

116

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 117

de zeen

118

AD RC5&6 Clay Robotics | UCL 119