Fiona Roberts
Google Arts and Culture Strat J750
A 3D printed model of Ayutthaya temple in Thailand, produced using the Stratasys J750.
Google Arts and Culture are leveraging Stratasys’ J750 full colour 3D printing system to reconstruct a host of historical monuments through its Open Heritage Project.
The purpose of the implementation of 3D printing is to enable historians re-create artefacts digitally and physically, raising awareness and accessibility of historical articles. It also allows the pieces to be more effectively preserved and shared, with files available for download around the world.
One of the major initiatives for Google Arts and Culture is the restoration of rare plaster casts initially discovered by A.P. Maudslay in Guatemala during the 1800s. These relics were housed across storage facilities in the British Museum for more than 100 years. But by teaming 3D laser scanning technology with Stratasys’ J750 3D printing system, which can print in half a million different colours, each artefact was able to be physically reconstructed in detail.
Key historical articles, their backstory and 3D printed representation, of the Google Arts and Culture Open Heritage Project can be viewed online here.
Fiona Roberts
Google Arts and Culture Strat J750
3D printed model of the largest free-standing monument in the Americas. Created using 3D scans of plaster casts from the British Museum and 3D printed on the J750.
“When we talk to arts and culture preservationists, historians, and museum curators, they’re all absolutely amazed by the ability to fabricate these things with such high fidelity via 3D printing technology,” said Bryan Allen, Design Technologist at Google. “The [Open Heritage] Project was to explore physically making these artefacts in an effort to get people hooked and excited about seeing places in a museum or research context. That’s when we turned to 3D printing.
“With the new wave of 3D printed materials available, we’re able to deliver better colours, higher finish, and more robust mechanical properties, getting much closer to realistic prototypes and final products right off the machine.”
“The J750 empowers designers to actually achieve their ultimate goal – matching the final 3D print to what is initially seen on the screen,” commented Rafie Grinvald, Enterprise Product Director of Rapid Prototyping, Stratasys. “Combining rich colours and translucency in a single print, designers and engineers can build models with heightened levels of accuracy and realism, mirroring opaque or transparent structures, and even complex materials like rubber.
“Our relationship with Google Arts and Culture is the perfect demonstration of 3D printing paying off – with models that look and feel like the real thing.”
