State Office for the Preservation of Monuments on the Stuttgart regional board.
Concept Laser Rider of Unlingen
Archeological sensation from the Hallstatt culture: The Rider of Unlingen from the 7th Century B.C.E. as discovered.
Concept Laser, the German 3D printing company, has used one of its Mlab cusing machines to produce a copy of a bronze horse rider figure from an early Celtic chieftain’s grave near Unlingen, Germany.
The ‘Rider of Unlingen’ is a burial object found in a chieftain’s grave – object were often buried with people to indicate their importance. Though secured, these graves were often the subject of attempted robberies, as was the case here. Yet, the thief left behind the ‘Rider of Unlingen’ for reasons unknown, and was preserved for posterity by archaeologists.
Nearly 3,000 years on, the figure was being printed out of powder. These kind of reverse engineering projects used to be carried out using direct moulding techniques, but would always carry the potential of damaging the object. 3D technology, however, enables the creation of exact replicas without needing direct contact.
State Office for the Preservation of Monuments on the Stuttgart regional board, Ginger Neumann.
Concept Laser rider of Unlingen
The original: Rider of Unlingen
The ‘Rider of Unlingen’ was first the subject of a CT scan, X-rayed three dimensionally, and then assessed in VG Studio Max 3.0 software from Volume Graphics. For the 3D printing of the object, Concept Laser allowed the Baden-Wurttemberg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments on the regional board of Stuttgart to leverage its LaserCusing technology via the Mlab cusing machine.
“Volume Graphics in Heidelberg, Germany suggested the idea of using 3D metal printing to produce replicas,” said Nicole Ebinger-Rist, from the Baden-Wurttemberg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. “In a CT scanner, we were able to capture the shape of the ‘Rider of Unlingen’ as STL data without touching or damaging it.
Concept Laser
Concept Laser rider of unlingen
The bronze Rider of Unlingen being replicated through the powder bed-based laser melting of metal.
“We printed out the horse rider using the LaserCusing process on a machine from Concept Laser. Concept Laser also lent us their material expertise. The historical rider is made of a copper alloy from the Iron Age, and we did not want to remove any material for a precise analysis. The 3D metal printing experts found a copper alloy for us which comes very close to the original in terms of specific weight and density distribution.”
Concept Laser and Ebinger-Rist alike see 3D technology transforming the way historical objects can be preserved and exhibited. Not least because multiple replicas can theoretically be printed in quick-time. The ‘Rider of Unlingen’ replica is being exhibited at two museums under the title: ‘The Rider of Unlingen – Celts, horses and charioteers.’
State Office for the Preservation of Monuments on the Stuttgart regional board.
Concept Laser rider of unlingen
A high level of detail: The 3D-printed copy of the Rider of Unlingen.
“True-to-detail reproduction without direct moulding is crucial,” Ebinger-Rist adds. “In the museum world, original specimens are grouped together in exhibitions, allowing them to be contrasted with comparable objects. These comparative collections give exhibition visitors and scientific researchers insight in a historical context.
“A replica which is faithful to the original can be made accessible at museums in many different places around the world. Theoretically, it should even be possible to reconstruct heavily damaged objects in the future, which would give the object its original shape back. Essentially, we’d be able to erase the destructive traces of history from an object.”
