In Helsinki, Finland, the emphatic sound of an organ brings within the new 12 months, with waves of air being pushed by way of a sprawling entanglement of pipes and wind strains.
The complexity of which, it’s clear, has been enabled by 3D printing know-how.
These pipes and contours collectively measure as much as 260 metres and boast 124 sound registers divided amongst a number of totally different units of pipes. The biggest in Finland and Scandinavia, they got here to go after a two-year mission which introduced collectively UPM Biocomposites, a Spanish 3D printing service bureau and Austrian organ builder Rieger Orgelbau. Now housed in Helsinki’s Music Centre, the organ was debuted on January 1st, 2024 throughout an Olivier Latry live performance.
Earlier than the pipes had been transported and assembled in Helsinki Musical Centre, they had been 3D printed utilizing a Giant Scale Additive Manufacturing extrusion course of and UPM’s Formi 3D biocomposite materials. The Formi materials was chosen due to its use of cellulose fibres which, directly, delivered dimensional stability within the printing course of, excessive layer to layer adhesion, and acoustic dampening traits.
“Cellulose fibres are, in fact, wood-based and so they have superb acoustic dampening efficiency,” Ralf Ponicki, Director of UPM’s Formi 3D enterprise, instructed TCT. “Subsequent to good printability, strong mechanical efficiency, the matte and silky look of this materials, now we have these further acoustic performances relating to dampening. That’s setting this materials other than normal fossil unfilled supplies.”
The UPM Formi materials not solely supplied a lift to the mechanics of the Rieger organ pipes but additionally to the aesthetics. Whereas true that the complicated geometries of the pipes wouldn’t have been potential with another manufacturing course of, the UPM Formi’s capability to facilitate overhangs of 70 levels meant these engaged on the event of the pipes had been handed an enormous design freedom.
“It’s arduous to understand such a design with another course of than 3D printing,” Ponicki mentioned. “Nevertheless, you want a fabric that means that you can realise this complicated geometry. If you happen to transfer from a straight cylinder to a extra complicated 3D construction the place the cylinder is transferring to the suitable, to the left, you create overhangs. Then, you want a fabric that has very robust adhesion layer to layer however nonetheless gives this solidity, so the pipe just isn’t collapsing.”