A ROYAL PROTOTYPE... MADE BY MATERIALISE.

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A ROYAL PROTOTYPE... MADE BY MATERIALISE.
07 March 2002 - Materialise NV

January 2002. Materialise realizes a special project: the building of a unique royal crown for the new princess of Holland.

Designing a unique creation for a unique opportunity. A challenge that Marcel Wanders Studio, a Dutch design bureau, faced in response to a competition organized by the Dutch Museum Het Kruithuis, for the wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander to Ms. Maxima Zorreguita. The Museum selected 24 of the most influential figures in contemporary design to create a crown for the princess. The creation of Marcel Wanders Studio (Amsterdam, Netherlands) was nominated.

For this majestic project, Marcel Wanders appealed to the prototyping services of Materialise and the material knowledge of DSM Somos®. Taking inspiration from nature, the studio copied the effect of a 'splash' of water and designed in this way a delicate and crystalline tiara that invokes these sensations of water. The definitive model would be a silver cast crown. Therefore a silicone mould was needed, for which Materialise was to create a new prototype. Materialise produced a stereolithography prototype crown in the ProtoFunctional* material.

The design of the crown, expressing the delicacy of water, led to a thin-walled complex prototype. The material used, allowed the high precision needed for this delicate part.

The stereolithography model served as master part for making the mould. In a second step wax was cast in this mould. This wax model served as pattern for the investment casting of silver.

The white ProtoFunctional prototype inspired Marcel Wanders with the idea for rendering the silver crown with an aesthetic feeling softer than that of polished silver, more in tone with the delicateness of the design. The final silver tiara was finished in a manner reflecting the design's theme of water.

The final selection for determining the winning design will be held one of these weeks. The design chosen as winner will be given to Princess Maxima. We'll keep you posted.

(*) ProtoFunctional is a registered trademark of DSM Somos®

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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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