RAPID PROTOTYPING – RAPID AGING
BY DENISE MADSACK
This paper deals with objects in contemporary art and design made by rapid prototyping (RP) technologies.
Since the late 1980s rapid prototyping (RP) has been used to transform digital data into physical models and prototypes. For the last years, RP technologies have no longer been used ex- clusively for the fabrication of models and prototypes, but also for the production of small object batch series or single unit products.
Today, designers and artists are using RP technologies in manifold ways. This paper gives an insight into their applica- tions and presents the most common technologies and materials actually used for the creation of RP objects. Furthermore, light and dark ageing experiments with 3D printed samples were performed to examine the colour stability of synthetic polymers typically used for RP nowadays. The tested RP material formu- lations are based on epoxy resin (EP), polyamide (PA) and acry- lonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Colorimetric examinations found that some of the tested samples may undergo significant colour changes in a response to indoor daylight exposure, some of them even, if stored in the dark.