Experimenting with new materials.

 

I have acquired a sample piece of Valchromat, which is a wood fiber board, similar to MDF, that is coloured with organic dyes and bonded using resin to create a material that is strong in colour. It is available in a variety of thicknesses, beginning at 8mm, which is what I plan to use.

 

I have had problems laser cutting this because there is not a laser cutter with enough power to cut through the material, but I have created files for the CNC cutting machines in the Soft Modelling workshop to test the flexibility of the material. The issue is that I am not used to creating files for this machine, so have only managed to create samples that are not flexible enough or with cuts that are too large. This has given me insight into how I need to cut the material for a successful cut, so it has been a helpful exercise.

I am planning to outsource laser cutting to experiment further with this material and to see if it is viable to use it instead of birch ply for the degree show.

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