Waterlines Ice Printer by Andy Romero at Coroflot.com

Waterlines Ice Printer

Waterlines Ice Printer is a prototype of an atypical 3D printer based on my concept for an experimental digital fabrication product: it is the result of a five week team project for Victoria University of Wellington in which I managed a team of six fellow design students. Inspiration for this project came from the natural freezing cycles of lakes and rivers which create beautiful forms and spaces. As water levels rise and fall during the winter months, layers of ice are formed at different heights with varying thickness, clarity, and texture. Mimicking this process mechanically with the Waterlines Ice Printer, water is frozen in specific shapes and thicknesses at different heights to compose a three dimensional form. Lack of complete control of the process recreates natural imperfections of ice formation and yields truly unique objects even from identical sets of data.

Finished ice print in water tank removed from freezer.

Comparison of two finished ice prints formed around the water tank's central rod. The Waterlines ice printer did not create a stack of shaped ice layers in the manner we had planned which was exciting and intriguing. Instead of producing solid forms of layered ice, the printer created porous objects composed of variously sized ice platelets. Each print turned out vastly different than we anticipated but one prediction was proven correct: different patterns, frequencies and intensities of aeration from the air pumps produce very diverse ice formations. For example using more intense and more frequent aeration during the freezing process of the second print (right) created more sparse and delicate forms.

Close-up comparison of the same two finished ice prints revealed that increased aeration frequency and intensity in the second print (right) produced larger and more sparse ice platelets.