Demonstrating New Materials, Software, and Hardware from the Hand and Machine Lab

There has been a surge of recent interest in new materials and tools for digital fabrication. In this work, we introduce a range of materials that we have developed for use in Direct Write (DW) 3D printers. These materials include play-dough, clay-dough, bronze clay, glass paste, and eggshell paste. Many of our materials exhibit unique properties, so to support and extend the capabilities of printing with these materials, we develop new slicer software and hardware components. For example, we designed new CAM software for successfully printing dramatic overhangs in clay and for printing rheologically non-linear materials by generating toolpaths with little to no travel movements. We also created hardware such as custom heaters that improve the structural stability of prints. By presenting an overview of all these works in one demonstration, we call attention to how the development of new materials, software, and hardware are interconnected in digital fabrication.