3D Printing the TulipK Lamp
Ben Geebelen’s TulipK lamp is Laser Sintered in polyamide. The pattern of the lamp was designed in Excel and the file was prepared in 3-matic. The lamp opens and closes through an ingenious mechanism that acts as a 3D printed dimmer for the lamp. Ben tells us about the TulipK in his own words below.
TulipK is a lamp shade I designed as a present to my wife. Its shape is inspired by a picture of tulips we had on our wedding invitation. I designed it fully in 3-matic and Excel (yes, I consider that design software too).
The shade has 6 tulip petals surrounding the light bulb. It includes a mechanism to make the flower open up. The petals are attached with hinges to a ring that is suspended from the ring attached to the light socket. Each petal has a small rod that slides through a slot in the latter ring. If you rotate the first ring with respect to the other, the rods slide through the slots and are pushed outward, making the petals open up. The idea was to have some kind of mechanical dimmer.
To make sure the petals become more and more translucent towards the top without jeopardizing the strength, I decided to punch holes through them rather than make them thinner. The holes were designed with Excel. I wrote a spread sheet to determine the locations of all 2374 holes punching through one petal and I create an STL for those. After that it was just a question of doing a Boolean subtraction and adding the rim.
— Ben Geebelen
