Neo Neon: Tufted Screens Methodology Report

NEO-NEON Thermoformed ‘Tufted’ LED Screens

Thermoformed LDPE

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Researchers: Course: Instructor: Semester:

Clayton Cain and Kara Holekamp Materials Lab Jennifer Wong Spring 2017

Objective As part of the Neo-Neon installation for Fusebox Festival, these thermoformed, movable plastic panels are intended to help shape an open event space to cater to a variety of performance types. Different configurations of the panels allow for intimate rooms, linear catwalks, or background surfaces.

The plastic panels, which are thermoformed to represent a ‘tufted upholstery’ appearance, are lit from within using LED light strips, which offers interesting color ambiances.

Additionally, the plastic panels are opaque enough to be projected on for video performances.

Material determinant Inspired by tufted upholstery, this project transforms sheets of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic into a new form that resembles a tufted fabric aesthetic.These plastic sheets are the exterior surface for a series of moveable, LED lit panels for Fusebox Festival.

Innovation

The transformation of plastic sheets into a texture that mimicks fabric upholstery required some consideration of the material characteristics, as well as the equipment limitations. After some experimentation, we realized a ‘draping’ technique would achieve the closest approximation to tufted fabric. In order to drape plastic in the thermoformer, we had to design and build a formwork, which the plastic would drape through to create a desired pattern. This formwork pattern needed to allude to tufted upholstery, tile across all the panels, and be scaled appropriately. Additionally, the built formwork had to be durable and produce accurate and repeatable formed plastic sheets.

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Neo-Neon: Thermoformed ‘Tufted’ LED Screens

Tools used

Program utilized

Thermoformer CNC Router Basic woodshop tools

Rhino AutoCAD

Materials - plastic panels

Source

Cost info

LDPE Chicago Screws Plywood Aluminum Bolts and wing nuts

store/website

$ per unit

Materials - frame

Source

Cost info

LED- light strips SMD 5050 Wire nuts PVC pipe Casters Sandbags

store/website

$ per unit

Thermoformed LDPE

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Step 1 : Design • Explore thermoforming and vacuum forming processes

-Explored CNC foam form with bondo coat for vacuum former -Decided to use draping technique using only

heating element without vacuum

• Test multiple formwork iterations

- Plywood form, additional aluminum plating added for smoother removal process

- Low Density Polyethelyne (LDPE)

• Choose plastic type

Step 2 : Thermoform production • Build final formwork

- CNC routed plywood diamond pattern - CNC routed aluminum sheet diamond pattern - Glue * together and attach bolts - Wooden frame with holes to secure over plastic

• Thermoform 200+ plastic sheets • Each sheet heated for approx. ~3min • Remove from thermoformer, place on cooling rack • Remove plastic from formwork and continue to cool on flat surface

Step 3 : Frame Assembly • Construct wooden frames for panels • Attach plastic panels together using Chicago screws • Insert LED lighting into wooden frames • Spraypaint plastic and attach wax paper to diffuse LED light • Attach plastic panels onto wooden frames using flat head screws • Casters and weights

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Neo-Neon: Thermoformed ‘Tufted’ LED Screens

Unresolved issues: • Plastic Choice We chose a plastic that was very transparent, which ultimately needed to be spraypainted with a white coat to conceal framework and to allow for video projections. The additional step of spraypainting the plastic was time consuming and inefficient, since it easily scratched.

• Formwork The formwork for draping plastic underwent several design iterations, and it could still have been improved. The plastic sheets were difficult to remove from the form, even after an aluminum plating made it much easier than raw plywood.

Our formwork required pre-drilling holes in the raw sheets of plastic, which both secure to the formwork and then provide holes for assembling the panels together with Chicago Screws. However, this system left a lot of room for error, since removing the thermoformed sheets from the form would often tear through the holes.

Conclusions: Overall, this project resulted in an eye-catching installation for Fusebox and was well recieved by both the audience and performers. If another iteration of the project were to be done in the future, it could consider how to use materials more sustainabilty. It would be interesting to pursue this project with a recycled material or consider an afterlife for the material. (*?*)

Thermoformed LDPE

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