3D Printed Connectors

Rapid prototyping technologies have a lot of potential to innovate the whole design industry. A 3D Printer is not only a tool for prototyping any more, but also a tool that can be used directly from the customer to materialise customised products and open source data.

The task for our 3rd semester product design students in digital media is to design 3D printable connectors for furniture. The connector is only a small part, but this small part can be the key for an innovative furniture concept. The students learn how to design variations of their idea, how to analyse and evaluate these, as well as create a family of connectors to finalise a modular furniture concept.

The students get familiar with different 3D printing technologies, how to use Rhino to model designs for 3D printing. They prepare data for 3D printing, use the university filament printer and work together with our external cooperation partner FORMLABS and 3DK to realize their 3D printed prototypes.