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SWC cutting principle

Spatial Wire Cutting, ETH Zurich, 2013-2016
PhD Research Project
This research investigates a multi-robotic hot-wire cutting technique that allows to significantly expand the set of possible hot-wire cutting geometries. In contrast to standard computer-controlled hot-wire cutting processes, in which the cutting medium remains straight, this technique modulates the curvature of the hot-wire, which adopts itself against the resistance of the processed material. This allows to produce a particular family of double-curved surface geometries: sweep surfaces defined by the motion of an altering profile curve along two guide curves.

The aim of this research is to develop methods and techniques that allow to control this cutting technique and to foresee its outcome. Knowledge is acquired directly from the physical form-finding process and implemented in a respective digital model. The research investigates material- and fabrication process-related constraints, correlations between operating physical factors, such as heat input, cutting speeds, resulting cutting forces and wire shape. It develops and validates suitable design, simulation and fabrication techniques and examines possible architectural applications, such as the time-efficient production of formwork components at full architectural scale.


Publications:

Rust, Romana, David Jenny, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler. "Spatial Wire Cutting - Cooperative robotic cutting of non-ruled surface geometries for bespoke building components." In Living Systems and Micro-Utopias: Towards Continuous Designing, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2016), S. Chien, S. Choo, M. A. Schnabel, W. Nakapan, M. J. Kim, S. Roudavski, Hong Kong, China: The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), 2016.
PDF

Rust, Romana, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler. "Force Adaptive Hot-Wire Cutting : Integrated Design, Simulation, and Fabrication of Double-Curved Surface Geometries." In Advances in Architectural Geometry 2016, Sigrid Adriaenssens, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Achim Menges, and Mark Pauly, 288-305. Zürich: Hochschulverlag an der ETH Zürich, 2016.
PDF

Credits:
Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich

Collaborators: Romana Rust (project lead)
Sponsors: Swisspor®

Copyright 2023, Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Gramazio Kohler Research
Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication
ETH Zürich HIB E 43
Stefano-Franscini Platz 1 / CH-8093 Zurich

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