1960s toy inspires 3D technique at Cohda Design

Nov 16 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

A POPULAR toy from the 1960s is the inspiration behind cutting-edge technology that allows consumers to design and manufacture their own pieces of contemporary furniture - with no specialist skills needed.

Innovators at Gateshead-based Cohda Design are expanding the mathematical principles of geometric drawing tool Spirograph into three dimensions, linked with a new computer program and the latest 3D printing technologies to produce its unique “Binary Furniture”.

According to the company, it’s now as simple to create a table in plastic as it was to draw a complex Spirograph pattern in the 1960s. The difference from the two-dimensional version is that binary spirals are drawn directly onto a digital computer tablet, where a third dimension is added and the data collected from the process determines overall shape and structure of the object, for instance, a table or chair.

Experts at the Digital Factory – which is based in the University of Sunderland’s Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP) – helped in the production of the physical model, using their cutting-edge 3D CAD system, called Catia.

Cohda’s innovative practices, such as turning milk containers and other plastic packaging into stylish products, are widely featured in the world design press and at various museum collections.

They chose to showcase their latest product at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, which included an interactive element for the public to create their own binary tables.

Richard Liddle, who set up the company three years ago, said: “Rapid prototyping is still an expensive and mostly unknown process outside the design and engineering industries but, with costs steadily falling year by year, and companies researching the use of recycled materials in the process, ourselves included, the future possibilities are very diverse.”