Fully-printable low-cost modular lamp

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

I have been working in this design for weeks, trying to improve his printability, and making it as simple and smooth as possible.

The ORIGINAL IDEA was to create an affordable modular lamp, providing the chance to build real-size lamps with a domestic FDM 3D printer (20 x 20 cm maximum printing size). The only parts that are not printable are the electrical stuff: wires, led strips, etc.


ARTISTIC MEANING:

For the design I get inspired by the importance of the circle. Many civilisations has considered it a sacred symbol due it is related to the main natural shapes: planets, suns, ovules, eyes, electrons, atoms, or navel are round.

A circle has no beginning or end, it closes upon itself; Represent the eternal, the absolute, unity, perfection, the circular movement of life, the cyclical. It is associated with the sun without which there is no life on earth and also the relationship between the two, the union between the divine and the earthly. It is the gold in Alchemy, the most precious metal.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

Additional technical requirements taken into account are described below, in descending order of significance:

· Simple design, reducing as high as possible the number of required parts. The ideal would be an unique part which would be repeated and assemble in the correct position.

· Simple geometry, in order to be printed without support. It would be perfect if the parts are unibody, without additional pieces, covers or gears.

· Fully printable

· It should be highly modular, allowing the assembly of 3 or more "floors".

· Low-cost

· Nice looking appearance.

ABOUT THIS VERSION: This is a definitive version, with lot of improvements since the first prototype release. Each ring adds a height of aproximately 12cm, and theorically you can assembly as many as you want until the ceiling doesn't let you continue (~2.5meters). If you set a new height record, please share your achievement with us!!


You can see below a brief description of the main improvements:

#### UPDATE v.22 ####

· Joints between rings have been redesigned. Now they are stronger, and have been checked to fit perfectly. I have printed them several times because of the tight tolerance, but now they are able to fix the angle to the intended one with no error.

#### UPDATE v1.0 ####

· Supports redesigned. Now they are really easy to remove!

· New diffuser design. With a 0,4mm width they are absolutely flexible even if they are printed in PLA.

· New cover for the TOP ring.

· Added a hole in the base for the IR sensor.

· Base holes are all normalised. You can see the addittional components table for further information.

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FUTURE DEVELOPMENT:

I am also working in an automated version, with one degree of freedom. I won't tell you anything else so you can imagine :P

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nowadays, I am a student of Industrial Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.