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A MYTHIC STORY...
ABOUT KOUROS
24 September 2002 - Materialise NV
| A remarkable statue is standing in the hall of the Materialise headquarters in Leuven, attracting attention of anyone entering the building. It is a reproduction of the ancient Greek Kouros sculpture with a length of almost 6 feet. |
The making of this Kouros statue was part of the ECO-marble project in which Materialise is involved. This project concerns the reproduction of sculptures, for which different techniques were studied. Other participants of the project besides Materialise were GEO-Analysis (taking care of the scanning of the sculptures), the Focke Museum in Bremen, The Fitzwilliam Museum of Archeology of Cambridge and the Archaeological Receipts Fund in Athens. The aim for Materialise was to make a life size 'replica' of Kouros. A Kouros is considered today as one of the most distinctive products of the Archaic era, the period of ancient Greek history from about 650 to 500 B.C. In this period Kouros life size sculptures were used to mark graves or stood near temples as gifts dedicated to the gods. A Kouros was always an athletic-looking male nude standing in a frontal pose. His left foot was slightly forward, his arms were held close to his sides and occasionally bent at the elbows. His hands were clenched. Kouroi were not portraits of people, but a more general representation of youth and strength.
After a preparation time for the scanned data of one day, Materialise built the Kouros on its MammothII machine. This stereolithography machine with a build area of 2150x 620x500mm built the statue with a layer thickness of 0.15mm. The part was ready after 99h, 22min. and 55s. Lifting the Kouros out of the machine. Being about 1,86m high and with a volume of 10 litres and a wall thickness of 5mm, this life size Kouros had taken 16 kg of Poly1500 resin. The weight of the statue after removing the support structures was about 11 kg.
After covering the statue with an UV-paint, Kouros was ready to stand up straight. Standing steadily on his feet, this prototype statue - perfectly illustrating Materialise' giant stereolithography capacity - would from now be the centre of curiosity for visitors of the Materialise booth on fairs all over Europe. We gladly tell you its mythic story...
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About: Materialise NV
Begun as a joint venture with the University of Leuven-Belgium, Materialise was one of the first European rapid prototyping service bureaus. It has since grown into a European supplier of plastic prototype solutions, and today is a worldwide leader in the rapid prototyping industry. Materialise offers a broad range of rapid prototyping, tooling and digital CAD software. In addition, Materialise prototypes and software have established a reputation in medicine and dentistry, with clinicians the world over using them in the most complex surgical cases. Its design products division concentrates on the development of rapid manufacturing. The company is privately owned with several subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and the USA, and employs over 300 people in its 4 divisions.* Materialise Industrial Services to "materialise" technical prototypes and small series through the most advanced prototyping and tooling techniques.
* Materialise Software to develop the technical software applications that allow a more efficient use of the rapid prototyping techniques.
* Materialise Medical to create medical models using these prototyping techniques and to develop medical software packages that are used by clinicians worldwide to assist them in the most complex cases of surgery.
* Materialise.MGX to manufacture design products for the end-user market. MGX is the youngest division and it draws on the knowledge and expertise of the prototyping division. |
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