This week’s selection is the Slide Glide Cyclides by mathematician Henry Segerman.
Segerman is an associate professor mathematics at Oklahoma State University, and is often seen online with curious 3D designs. In fact, he’s made our Design of the Week pages no less than three times.
This will be his fourth.
This highly unusual 3D model is based on mathematics and geometry, as one would expect from Segerman. It’s based on the curious cyclide shape, which is defined in Wikipedia as:
“A Dupin cyclide or cyclide of Dupin is any geometric inversion of a standard torus, cylinder or double cone.”
Visually, it’s a banana-like crescent with smooth curves.
Slide glide cyclide mechanism [Source: YouTube]
Slide glide cyclide mechanism
The slide glide brings together shapes around a gear system. When this system is rotated, it quickly raises or drops the cyclides to create a disk or folds it inwards.
Segerman sheds some light on the design concept:
“The design employs forms referred to as cyclides. In this setup, the cyclides spin against each other, unfolding while maintaining contact, causing the base shape to transform from a sphere to a disk.
Andrew Kepert discovered this design during his research to “visualize” why the area of a sphere is quadruple the area of a same-radius disk. I supplemented the design with gears and a base.
The eight cyclides are 3D printed in two parts, which are then glued together using a specially designed slot system for alignment. This technique reduces overhang during printing, although support will still be needed near the gear teeth.”
A few additional pieces of hardware, like specific bolts and nuts, are necessary to finish this project.
It’s astounding to know that only eleven 3D printed components are necessary, in addition to the hardware.
Kindly, Segerman has made the whole STL and instructions available for free download on the internet at Printables.
Source: YouTube and Printables
“Why did the 3D printer go to therapy? Because it had too many layers of unresolved issues!”
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