Part Description and Specifications for
"New Interlocking Toroid"

These intertwined part will serve as a demonstration object and as an existence proof for a class of such self-interlocking Scherk toroids. This geometrical model will be used in classes on solid modeling and on the math of minimal surfaces. It may also serve as a small scale model for artists, e.g., Brent Collins, who is creating similar sculptures in wood.

This design and fabrication effort is part of a research program sponsored by NSF to streamline the process of rapid prototyping of free form parts, by defining a clean separation and interface between designers and fabricators.

All these parts were generated with Carlo Séquin's Sculpture Generator

WovenScherk

This is a double toroidal loop in which the first and second passage are intertwined with one another - without intersections ! It is formed from a 7-storey Scherk tower with regular two-way saddles.

FILE ==> wovenscherk.stl.gz

Fabrication Hints

The scale or strength of this model is not critical; it can be scaled so as to fit optimally a particular process or some remaining space in a run of a larger piece. Ideally we would like this part scaled to be 3-5 inches in diameter.

Orientation is not critical either. However, for a layered manufacturing process (SLA, SLS, etc), it might be best to turn the object 90 degrees around the x-axis, thereby giving the part minimal height, and preserving its radial symmetry ideally.

This parts is preferably built with an SFF technology that does not neet support for overhanging areas (such as SLS), or with a technology in which these supports can be easily removed (such as FDM).

In the .STL file describing this part, vertices from different surfaces have not been merged (yet); so they require software that does not get upset when shared vertices appear separated by one unit in the last digit due to rounding errors.

Part Description Files:

Compressed ASCII .STL file: wovenscherk.stl.gz

The compressed file can be downloaded from our anonymous FTP site with:
ftp ftp.cs.berkeley.edu {login as "anonymous"; use your full e-mail address as password.}
Then change directory: cd ucb/projects/unigrafix/STL
Fetch desired files: get FILE.stl.gz
The FILE.stl.gz file can be uncompressed with gunzip.

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