还记得Studio Akemake的Spirula Speaker吗？它是最早的设计产品之一，表明可以使用3D打印实际上制作出美观，功能完备的消费类产品。它是在长丝挤出工艺中使用木制聚合物复合长丝制成的，但在形式和生产率上仍然存在局限性。现在这家名为Deeptime的公司已经发展为采用更易于生产的喷砂粘合剂3D打印工艺：其结果是令人惊叹的Ionic Sound System，该系统由两个被动喷砂3D打印的Spirula卫星和一个有源Thunderstone超低音扬声器（也包括3D打印）。 Thunderstone具有光纤，AUX和蓝牙输入，并包含为音响系统供电的电子设备。

Remember the Spirula Speaker by studio Akemake? It was one of the very first design products showing that it was possible to actually make nice, functional finished consumer products using 3D printing. It was made using a wooden-polymer composite filament in a filament extrusion process and it still had limits both in form and productivity. Now that company is called Deeptime and it has evolved to embrace a more production-ready sand binder jetting 3D printing process: the result is the stunning Ionic Sound System, which consists of two passive sand 3D printed Spirula satellites and an active Thunderstone subwoofer (also 3D printed). The Thunderstone has optical, AUX, and Bluetooth inputs and contains the electronics that power the sound system.

具有讽刺意味的是，在木材-聚合物复合材料长丝上市之前，就已经有喷砂剂的存在。缺乏的既是对技术可能性的认识，又是关于如何用它来制造最终产品而不是工业模具的新思路（确实提供了惊人的可能性，但是，如果您不在铸造厂工作，那会很无聊而不是。几乎和高质量的音频系统一样漂亮）。

The irony of all this is that sand binder jetting existed long before wood-polymer composite filaments came to market. What has been lacking is both awareness as to the technology’s possibilities and new ideas on how to use it to make final products rather than industrial molds (which do offer amazing possibilities but, if you don’t work in a foundry, are boring and not nearly as pretty as a high-quality audio system).

向我们学习使用3D打印技术来制造最终产品的砂纸粘合剂似乎需要花费很长时间。但是，一些年轻的工作室终于做到了。在Deeptime之前，Sandhelden向世界展示了如何使用喷砂粘合剂制造漂亮的设计师家具。喷砂粘结剂的事实是，它确实可以负担得起足以生产大量设计产品的费用：但是，其采用水平仍然非常有限，因此成本仍然很高。

Learning us sand binder getting 3D printing technology to make end-use products seems to be taking a painstakingly long time. However, some young studios are finally doing it. Before Deeptime, Sandhelden showed the world how to use sand binder jetting to make beautiful designer furniture. The thing about sand binder jetting is that is could really be affordable enough to produce a large number of design products: however, its level of adoption is still so limited that costs remain very high.

现在，情况似乎正在发生变化。提供这种技术的两家公司之一的ExOne似乎正在采取一些严肃的步骤来使这一过程更广泛地可用。 Deeptime音频系统是由ExOne的内部AM服务设施生产的，这意味着Deeptime不必购买机器-至少在其产品的预期未来需求增长要求内部迁移之前。

Now, something seems to be changing. And ExOne, one of the two companies offering this technology, seems to be taking some serious steps toward making this process more widely available. The Deeptime audio system is produced by ExOne’s internal AM service facility, which means that Deeptime does not have to buy a machine – at least until the expected future growth in demand for its products demands that they move production internally.

深度转换 Deeptime transition

录音室以其新名称命名的深层时间是地质时间的未来未来概念，即“大陆舞蹈和山脉起伏的时间尺度”。因此，如果您认为3D打印需要很长时间才能发展为可投入生产的技术，请再想一想：首款Akemake扬声器于2010年代初问世，而不到十年的时间就意味着划时代的过渡就像大规模生产转移到数字化，加性工作流程中一样。

Deep time, from which the studio takes its new name, is the concept futurefutureof geologic time “the kind of timescale where continents dance and mountains rise and fall”. So if you think that 3D printing is taking a long time to evolve into a production-ready technology, think again: the first Akemake speaker was presented in the beginning of the 2010s and less than a decade is not a long time for an epochal transition to take place like the one that will see mass production shift into digital, additive workflows.

这将需要两个以上的工作室来完成。但是，在最终使用的标准件生产中采用喷砂粘合剂的方法正与该技术在零件的金属批量生产中的采用同步发展。而且收益越来越明显。

It will take more than two studios to do it. But the adoption of sand binder jetting for end-use par production is moving along with the adoption of this technology for metal mass production of parts. And the benefits are becoming increasingly clear.

离子声音系统的研究始于2014年，当时Akemake决定开发其3D打印木材概念的商业版本。在制造了50个原型之后，该公司更名为Deeptime，并从英国迁至位于布拉格附近的科学技术园区的新设计办公室和制造工厂。

Research into the Ionic Sound System began in 2014 when Akemake decided to develop a commercial version of their 3D printed timber concepts. After fifty prototypes the company re-branded as Deeptime and relocated from the UK to a new design office and manufacturing facility situated in a Science and Technology Park near Prague.

ExOne 3D打印机粉床中的沙子3D打印Spirula扬声器

无休止的循环 Neverending cycle

在发布全球首个砂岩产品之前，Deeptime完善了他们的生产流程，增强了音频功能，并对每个设计方面进行了微调。现在，它涵盖了材料，过程和产品的最终用途，创造了独特且完全集成的体验。它从启发螺旋藻扬声器形状的自然形态开始，一直延续到3D打印过程中使用的石英砂，该石英砂呼应了一层又一层沙子形成石头的沉积过程。

Before launching the world’s first sandstone product, Deeptime refined their production process, enhanced the audio capabilities and fine-tuned every design aspect. It now embraces the materials, the process and the product’s final use creating a unique and fully integrated experience. It begins with the natural forms inspiring the shapes of Spirula speakers, continues through the quartz sand used in a 3D printing process that echoes the sedimentary process of stone-forming from layers and layers of sand.

就像古生物学家从沙子中挖出文物一样，新的3D打印文物也可以从粉末床中挖出并精确清洗。然后将它们反复浸入专门开发的硬化剂中，该硬化剂会渗入多孔壳并使其不透气。后处理完成后，将在消声室中对完成的扬声器进行分析，并通过扫频到可听范围内的正弦波信号进行驱动。结果在视觉上令人惊叹。整套音响的价格约为3,000欧元，我们相信声音也不会太破旧。

Just like a paleontologist would excavate artifacts from sand, The new 3D printed artifacts are also excavated from the powder bed and precisely cleaned. They are then repeatedly dipped into a specially developed hardener which infiltrates the porous shells and makes them airtight. After post-processing is complete, the finished speakers are analyzed in an anechoic chamber, driven with a sine wave signal swept through the audible range. The results are visually stunning. At about €3,000 for the full package we trust the sound is not too shabby either.

文章来源：3dprintingmedia