Digital Making | Testing Continued

Over the weekend I was able to aid Edward, Kingsley and Sarah in their large scale testing in order to understand how their pattern idea would work and how that could be fixed to the structure.

Combined Efforts

The bi-axial jig proved to helpful but it wasn’t without its downfalls. The following captures most of the work over Saturday & Sunday.

Saturday

We were able to test the nylon fabric, the first initial pictures showing the results. However, shortly after we begun experiencing issues with the jig. When observing the final image, it is possible to see a threaded rod, along this a nut pushes the timber arms up which in turn slide the acrylic sheets outwards which then stretches the material.

Our first issue arose when attempting to raise the arms, we found rather than lifting, they begun twisting. Unsure of why this was happening, we were able to bypass this by manually guiding the sheets outwards as we raise the arms. This was all well and good until one arm gave out (pictured above, midway) releasing tension and slingshot-ing towards the centre. The screws used were far too short and ripped straight out from the timber, this concluded the day.

Sunday

Purchasing longer screws, we begun to repair the jig when we noticed that infact, one of the hinges had also broken. Being unable to replace the hinge we continued using the jig manually with the aid of clamps. Tests continued but also failed, certain parts of the jig began splitting and giving way as the epoxy gave way. Despite this, we were able to test a plywood pattern onto the latex with a positive result.

To Be Done

Following up from these events, we spoke about using fibreglass as either an alternative to plywood (laying it directly onto the material) or casting it after the plywood has shaped to strengthen the panel. We were unable to perform a fibreglass test given the status of the jig but this led me to think of solutions of attaching these panels.

The aim is to embed eyelets in the pattern of the panels where needed and thread each panel together and to the structure using an elastic cord/rope. This way should someone attempt to lean on the structure, their hand wouldn’t perforate the latex as well as make it possible to incorporate a dynamic element to these panels.