Revolutionizing Manufacturing and Solar Energy
Revolutionizing Manufacturing and Solar
The Solar flower is a unique project that combines art, technology, and sustainability. Inspired by the beauty, geometry, and complexity of nature, Cory Zwerlein, Founder of Still Alive Lights, set out to design interactive lights, powered by the sun. Now, by utilizing Kickstarter and 3D printing, the Still Alive Lights team is making their dream a reality.
“I started sketching ideas of the Solar Flower two years ago while working as an Architect designing Solar Energy systems in buildings.” Cory says. “I wanted to incorporate Solar Technology into a product at a scale that I could get my hands on.”
For the past year, Still Alive Lights has worked with 3D Brooklyn, Cases By Source, and Raise3D to challenge the possibilities of traditional manufacturing with modern resources and cutting edge technology. Using these tools, they paved a way for tackling one of the more difficult tasks of design, prototyping.
With a product, there is always room for improvement whether it’s a small tweak, or a new design. Typically, the prototyping process is a long and expensive one involving outsourced production, waiting on shipments, making revisions, and continuing again. By utilizing Raise3D’s N2 Plus printers, they gained the stability and reliability to print, prototype and produce in-house, and for weeks on end. By applying 3D printing, the number of tests and prototypes that could be created quickly and efficiently became limitless.
“[The Raise3D N-Series printers] are the first 3D printers I've used that I'm not afraid to let run overnight! Once our team has finalized a product's print settings, we can let our N2s run for two weeks straight and our only maintenance task will be cleaning our nozzles a couple times a week.”
After numerous rounds of trials and perfecting, the Solar Flower is on it’s way to becoming successfully funded on Kickstarter, and one step closer to reaching the hands of users all around the world. Ultimately, Still Alive Lights is a group of passionate designers, creators, thinkers, and makers who want to share their work to inspire as many people as they can to “Keep Making”. By using new and accessible techniques, they’ve managed to bring a technology that is usually reserved for larger scale projects indoors for people to enjoy.
“We are all always improving our products with a never ending design process -- Design, Test, Fail, Learn, Repeat. The more you make, and the more you do, the more you'll learn and 3D Printers have been the best tool for this. Thanks Raise 3D!”
Support their Campaign
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1295567787/solar-flower?ref=nav_search
Follow the Still Alive Lights Crew
website: www.stillalivelights.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stillalivelights/
instagram: @stillalivelights