Press Release
Engineering & Design Savvy Share Center Stage With Performing Arts
Shown are the 33 patterns for the polymer "concrete" panels manufactured by MetroCast and installed on the Juilliard School's new indoor/outdoor amphitheater —the forms were rapid prototyped by 3-Dimensional Services Group in just three weeks to help keep construction schedules on time.
Planned renovations to the Juilliard School facilities proceed smoothly as architectural firm, general contractor, building components company and rapid prototype company collaborate to finish unique amphitheater
For more than 100 years, the Juilliard School in New York's Lincoln Center, and its forerunner, the Institute of Musical Art, has been the beacon for training young musicians from North America and around the world, rivaling Europe's most prestigious conservatories. Now, with programs including dance and drama studies in addition to music, the school is one of the cornerstones of the city's cultural hub, and is adding new excitement and energy to the area with a series of renovations to its building. One such project is a new outdoor amphitheater, a small section of informal seating encouraging visitors and passersby to view performances staged behind a glass wall of the school. On the street side of the seating area, a series of display panels will offer information regarding upcoming school events, concerts and curriculum.
The 'new' 100-plus year old Juilliard School in New York City proudly shows off its recent addition, the hypar shape—a hyperbolic parabolid form—tiered seating pavilion constructed using unique form building panels, the patterns for which were completed in three weeks by rapid prototyping firm 3-Dimensional Services Group.
As distinctive as the Juilliard School's studies are, so to is the design of this unique tiered seating pavilion. The architectural firm of FX Fowle generated a hypar shape—a hyperbolic parabolid form—somewhat resembling a saddle shape or the prow of a ship. Although the street-side facing contour can be mathematically described by straight lines, the form is virtually all curved surfaces. The graceful form of the pavilion, however, also presented a construction challenge in creating and staying true to the unique curvature while replicating the design on-site, to maintain safe weight loads, and to complete the project on time. That task fell to Turner Construction Company, contractor for the project. They in turn, called upon MetroCast Corporation (Westland, MI), a leading manufacturer of precast
"polymer concrete" building panels. The panels are durable, high strength though lightweight components that provide architects an expanded range of design, aesthetic and economical options, and with colors and surface appearance selections to match any desired construction effect. The panels have been used extensively in commercial office buildings, hospitals, banks, churches and specialty structures.
And, for Constantine Bodea, owner of MetroCast, the Juilliard project appeared to be made to order for the company's product—a distinctive design with components needed fast to keep construction on time and to budget. "We had confidence in our panels to fill all the requirements and specifications laid out by the architect and the contractor," Bodea notes, "the real challenge, however, was in mathematically designing, engineering and constructing the various patterns and tooling needed to cast each panel. Each panel—the structure consists of 33 individual concrete panels and when assembled, measures approximately 13 feet high at its apex and nearly 30 feet long from corner to corner—has its own shape, contours, thicknesses and tapers, and dimensions required to keep the overall form of the hypar in smooth transition and to accurately abut the multiple pieces next to it. We sought outside assistance with these design and engineering tasks."
"That aid came from a company we've worked with before, 3-Dimensional Services Group. From our previous experience with them, we felt assured that the job would get done on time and to everyone's satisfaction."
The 3-Dimensional Services Group, based in Rochester Hills, MI, provides rapid prototyping services to domestic and international clients. The group consists of three interrelated companies—3-Dimensional Services, Urgent Plastic Services, and Urgent Design & Manufacturing...together they design, engineer and build functional prototype parts and low-to-medium volume production parts from 50 to 70% faster than conventional prototype shops. In the past, most of their projects have been comprised of industrial and manufacturing applications, but with a vast background in pattern construction and molding techniques, the extension to building components and construction was not considered that much of a stretch.
Though shifting into a new sector, according to Jason Desotell, 3-Dimensional Services' sales engineer and project liaison, the mold design and build procedures, along with the results, were typical for the group's history. "We were able to deliver the first pattern to MetroCast for their inspection," says Desotell, "in just 10 days after we received the molding materials—48" x 96" x 13" thick pieces of dense polyurethane foam. All 33 patterns were finished in three weeks. For each panel, our designers and engineers had to first generate CAD files using just dimensional data and an artist's rendering of the project provided by the architect. Using the CAD data to reverse engineer the shapes, cutting tool paths were programmed for our CNC machining centers to complete each panels form."
Pattern pieces ranged from three feet long in some cases, to 15 feet in others, with varying thicknesses, as each mold could range from 13 inches thick at one edge to as little as two inches at another corner. Because of these wide variances in shape and contour, Desotell points out that one of the critical elements of the process was making sure each piece of raw material was correctly positioned on the machine's table so as to optimize work envelopes and assure that molds could be completed in single setups.
Also, for the larger patterns with lengths exceeding the eight foot material blanks, technicians had to use epoxy adhesives to extend the stock to required sizes...leftover trim pieces from smaller patterns were used, thus a strategic schedule was prepared that would make these extension segments available when needed.
A third challenge encountered by 3-Dimensional Services was the fact that all of the mold inner faces required a Class A surface finish that would transfer a similar grade of finish appearance to the concrete panels. Employing the proper tooling, combined with the high speed cutting action and accuracy of the machining centers and the programming efforts that optimized material removal, the required surface finishes were generated as is off of the machines...no secondary operations or processes were needed that might alter the patterns' final dimensions or form.
Helping 3-Dimensional Services Group to produce such patterns in as short a time frame as they did is the fact that the firm, with continuing and significant capital investments made in manufacturing technology, has the on hand and in-house the equipment necessary to complete the molds—and other like large parts such as automotive frames and chassis, body panels, etc.—within critical time frames. For the Juilliard building panels, one Awea machining center, located at 3-Dimensional Services, with a work envelope of 120" x 63" x 30" was utilized for the smaller patterns; a second Awea machining center featuring travel size of 144" x 192" x 48" was employed for the larger tooling sections. This second machine is used at affiliate Urgent Design & Manufacturing (Lapeer, MI), which specializes in larger prototype part manufacturing.
"Though the client was outside of our typical base, and the product out of our traditional range," Desotell remarks, "the procedures and results were what we've come to expect. We like to think that our group's resources...past experiences, multiple manufacturing disciplines and know-how, design and engineering savvy, and the technology we put to use day in and day out...gives us an advantage over the competition, an advantage that's passed on to our clients with fast delivery and production like quality."
Since its founding in 1991, 3-Dimensional Services Group, has redefined prototyping as the ability to manufacture complete, production-like prototype parts in a rapid time frame. The group provides prototype services and low-volume production for virtually all process sectors that, in addition to pattern and mold tooling work, includes injection molding, and stamping, laser process cutting and welding, CNC machining, robotic and manual welding, hydroforming and tube bending, vehicle frame fabrication, vibration welding, RIM tooling, rapid modeling, high definition stamping of exotic alloys, and assembly operations.
Back to Case Studies