Construction

A selection of a few devices and designs I have worked on over the years, ranging from R&D prototypes to purely decorative.

Snowflake Generator

This construction project was initiated with the goal of manufacturing a prototype of a machine that can "generate" snow as close as possible to natural snowflakes and ice crystals occuring in clouds. The produced snow was intended to be used in the lab for optical particle measurement and aerodynmic experiments.

The apparatus went through several different design stages, with a preliminary study that recommended a sophisticated cloud chamber design with full climate control. However, this initial design proved unaffordable, both in terms of research budget and necessary FTEs for deployment.

Based on the experience gained in the initial study, a much more affordable design was developed. Here, evaporated water is guided into a balloon-like structure, where it can freeze into ice crystals and snow flakes under the right conditions.

This design was developed from start to finish and a functional prototype was assembled and operated in a lab environment. Parts of the frame had to be custom-built and 3D printing proved to be instrumental in this process.

Further possible improvements of the design will include a larger "cloud" volume and an improved control of the thermodynamic variables temperature and water vapor concentration.

Generative Design

The figure below shows an STL file of a figure-8 immersion of a Klein bottle, ready for 3D printing. The file was generated using a Python script.