ANU School of Art wins ANU Major Equipment Grant

The School of Art has won an Australian National University Major Equipment Grant worth $212,000 which will help fund a new 3D printer, waterjet cutter and large printer-scanner.

 

“The major equipment grant is big news for the School of Art,” said Head of the Glass Workshop Associate Professor Richard Whiteley.

 

“All workshops have put money into the project and it’s a collective bid that will enhance a digital bridge across the whole School of Art.”

 

Professor Whiteley said that researchers in the School of Art will use the equipment in numerous ways, highlighting the 3D printer as an example. 

 

“Some people will use it to prototype ideas, and to get a three-dimensional build on a sculpture, a model or a particular idea they’re trying to conceptualise,” he said.

 

“Others will use it directly as a point of outsourcing. Printing in plastic is also a way to present finished works.”

 

The waterjet cutter releases a fine stream of water under high pressure, into which cutting compounds can be added.

 

“It can cut within a few a fraction of a millimetre accuracy and it does not distort, because it doesn’t heat the material that it’s cutting,” Professor Whiteley said. 

 

“So it’s very helpful for cutting a material like glass and it can cut precious metals. But it can also cut regular steel. They can even cut cakes.”

 

Professor Whiteley said the equipment would be added to a suite of existing equipment, like the laser cutter and router, to provide an enhanced digital platform for researches.

 

“The equipment will allow researchers to prototype ideas more quickly and move across material practices more easily. This equipment will allow more interdisciplinary activity, which is here a lot of research and teaching has been heading” he said.

 

The ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, and the Department of Quantum Science contributed toward the bid, and will also have access to the equipment.