It has come to our attention that a new organization in the UK is in the process of marketing itself as Lumenique.
(more…)Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Notice of Lumenique Name Use by Another Lighting Organization and My Reaction
Posted: July 9, 2021 in Uncategorized0
The Idea of a 3D Print Manufacturing Universe – Real or Fantasy?
Posted: July 8, 2021 in UncategorizedThere is a lot of buzz about the idea of 3D printing taking over as the prime manufacturing method for producing products, even buildings. Some proposals include the concept of entire products being made within one machine. While the ideas are interesting and enticing, their is a long list of things that make all of this more fantasy than reality.
Cost
While the cost of 3D printed parts has been improving over the last decade, they still fall well short of the piece part prices of production tooled parts. Ignoring the cost of tooling for a moment, the cost of a stamped, die cast, or injection molded part, run in quantity, is pennies on the dollar compared to 3D printed parts.
Production Time
The time that a 3D printer takes to make a part is measured in hours, compared to seconds for parts coming from tooled processes. A die cast machine, from raw material to cooled, ready to finish part might be a few minutes. Not that die cast and molding processes have a small amount of waste – as do 3D printed parts that have build trays to discard every few parts, and material that is not used from spools tails.
These two basic elements of part creation are just the beginning of the comparison lop-sidedness that ahs to be considered before running off an buying a 3D print farm.
(more…)Just a quick update. I have been building product, a web site, a store front, and a business/marketing plan simultaneously. That means a lot of juggling of time. The artistic design guy (me) is holding up production (me), which means the marketing people (me) can’t get the photographer (me) the product images needed by the web site designer (me) to get the web site finished and the storefront developer (me) the proper components to build the store. Not only that, but their seems to be quite a bit of argument amongst these members (me) on what is to be released first, or do we launch everything at once. To make matters worse, the artist (me) keeps looking at the products as they are made and demanding changes be made, and the engineer (me) has been having a little difficulty with getting things to fit into the cavities provided for drivers and wiring.
However, I can say that we all are turning the corner. The new web site for lighted object artworks is ready to fill with objects now being completed in the shop – a total of 16 when it’s all done and dusted. Further, the on-line store is also complete, and populated with many non-lighted products and Tasca products that have been off site for nearly two years, but are now back on line, in addition to several new items that have been completed over the last several months.
(more…)Integrated 3D Printed Handheld Task Light
Posted: June 17, 2021 in 3D printing, Art and Design, General SSL Commentary, Making Things, Uncategorized3D printing can be accomplished using single or multiple materials. The future of the process includes printing integrated circuits, optics, circuit pathways, heat sinks, fixture bodies and enclosures. Robotics, combined with 3D printing stations, can assemble entire products with no fasteners, no seams, and no human interaction, from a bin of raw materials.
The process involves setting up a series of 3D printers that feed into a main printer that is printing a body. At various stages, the printer is paused, and components are installed into cavities, before the printer continues. This can also include potting of cavities, as well as creating wiring vias and paths for conventional wires to pass through. The finished product would have no seams to leak, no intermediate gasketing to fail. It is an integrated assembly that used no glue or seaming of any type, making the final product durable.
This process can be repeated 24/7, with no staff present, other than to keep the material supplies loaded (also done with automation in the local area of the machine.) Customer orders can then move directly from order entry into the production que, with all available selectable options of color, optic, LED power level, CCT, control interface, etc… since the entire fixture is created from software to real world, with none of the conventional inventory of parts, components, etc… through to assembly operations.
A Simple Example to Illustrate the Process
The following is a design and process I created from raw fixture design to printed, in less than 24 hours.
(more…)Allow me to introduce myself in a way that a resume and LinkedIn profile is unable to. I offer the following brief illustrated run down of my career in 10 Acts. Sort of a Play of evolving interests that leads me to offering you a new resource. I hope you have a moment to enjoy this adventure as much as I have. Who knows, perhaps we might one day find ourselves on a shared path.
To start, I am an artist at heart, and have been for a very long time. My first punishment in grammar school was for using my imagination to color a birds in a manner the nuns did not appreciate. This, combined with other similar incidents of expressed independence, led to my being removed from Catholic school to be placed in a conventional grammar school where my “unique” approach would not present disrupt the order of the Rigid Penguin Queens.
I come from a background of a mother who was exceptionally talented in art, and a father who was an engineer and math professor, and a multi-generational family of entrepreneurs. My father showed me the way of being a professional adult, my mother the path to artistic expression. While this duality has afforded me insight into two worlds that rarely share the same space, it has suited me particularly well in lighting – which is why I spent so many years in the industry.
(more…)What I Can Do for You at Lumenique
Posted: June 12, 2021 in 3D printing, Art and Design, General Commentary, UncategorizedEvery designer has instances where they want to see a special idea or concept realized to fill a small, but essential need or want, but cannot find a path to see it realized. I know this, as I was a designer that started making things for my own projects to fill this need – which led to the formation of Lumenique.
The need for something special may be as simple as a small iconic accent applied to a wall or door, a corporate image piece, a center piece at a corporate entry desk or conference table, a side table or dining table light that functions as accent source of illumination while making an artistic design statement. These are the inspired details that add nuance and depth, that makes a design pop – but are too frequently set aside for want of a source to make them real.
(more…)Why Would an Artist Choose OLED?
Posted: June 10, 2021 in Art and Design, General Commentary, UncategorizedArt is about combining materials and technology in a way that creates objects that reflect a vision or an idea. In some instances, artists find it necessary to innovate their own technology, or to apply one in a way unintended by the originator in order to achieve the end result they desire. Art is about experimentation and tinkering.
In my previous lives, I have done this many times – from using lithography films loaded into a 35mm camera for extremely long exposures for motion capture, to soldering house wiring together with a motorcycle fog lamp to make a sculpture.
Artistic inspiration is generally not bound by the physical reality it springs from. In many cases, it is impossible to create what the imagination or an idea brings forth. Yet, an artist that has become too involved in the workings and machinations of creation, often find themselves lost and frustrated. For these reasons, there is always a level of compromise. Available resources, time, and skill set combine to shape the universe within which an artist creates. Some of these limitations are by choice – as is the case for those who choose only to paint, or sculpt in clay – others are just the limitations of the real world.
Light Source Selection
I have been in lighting for 40 years, from virtually every angle – including design of lighting in spaces, design of products for manufacture, use of light to cure resins or disinfect water, and in artwork. I see light in things, in spaces, and in the world – it’s now just a part of what I see.
(more…)In the Beginning
Emerging from a humble start in Boise, Idaho as a drafter/designer, then forged in the heat of Las Vegas, the burning excitement for lighting led to the creation of Kevin L. Willmorth, Lighting Design Consultant, the birthplace of Lumenique. The setting was a second floor industrial office space leased from John Renton Young, a lighting entrepreneur. Sharing our building: An Interior Designer; a Boutique Lighting Rep Agency, and a fledgling specialty color filter coating company.
The firm provided lighting design for the Mirage Hotel, casinos, retail stores, golf courses, resorts, and roughly 40 large custom homes every year. To keep up, my partner (and wife, Angie), and one drafter, worked long hours, seven days of the week, frequently through the night, to meet deadlines. All of our customers were demanding, and we met their challenges through every means at our disposal – which included finding luminaires for special spaces that were exemplary and unique.
We sourced products from Italy and Spain, antiques from San Francisco, and customs made from a variety of sources, including Winona Lighting. However, contractors and distributors were ill prepared to support the frequently strange sources of products we came up with. The time we were spending fixing problems consumed precious time we just did not have, and produced less that desirable results. There had to be a better way.
(more…)Art and Design Creation Enabled by Technology
Posted: June 4, 2021 in Art and Design, Technology at Large, UncategorizedArt vs. Design
Art is not media bound. It matters not whether a creation comes from spray cans, found objects, sculpted from clay, chipped out of marble, or painted with secret formula pigments. Art is the transformation of a thought or individual vision, expressed in forms to be experienced by others. Some art is intentionally fleeting, to be experienced in the moment that is lost to time. Other forms are permanent, to transcend the ages. Some art is heavily contextual, some dated, and some transcendent, changing in meaning and perceived value over time. It is all art. It is all creative expression.
Every stage of human artistic development has been boosted by the simultaneous development of enabling technology. In some cases, the artist themselves were the innovators, in others, artists are the benefactors of technology that emerged for other purposes. Early painters utilized paints of their own creation, where modern artists utilize a plethora of manufactured medium with which to express themselves. The art is not diminished, and the ability to create is enhanced by this transformation. Early sculptors chipped away at marble they sourced from quarries engaged in building architecture, or shaped clay taken from river beds or headed to brick factories, or cast bronze from the same processes and materials used for architectural metalwork. Today, sculpting comes in every imaginable form, using materials and technologies from the past, the present, and in the case of some, the near future. The introduction of the computer has opened doors into new realm of art – including digital works that exist only as data and projected pixels, art headed to any number of printing processes, and now three dimensional art directly from data using 3D printers.
There is differentiation between art and design. Design – whether it be Graphic or Industrial – is creative and artistic, but has a purpose, a determined value to be delivered. In this, Design seeks to first identify the need of the viewer (read “customer”) community, then deploy an end product to satisfy the intended number of viewers in a way that produces a commercial sales result. In this, the Viewer is the priority in which the Designer intends to serve. The Designer focuses every effort on the attempt to produce a clear understanding of the product created, in order to produce the most universal acceptance by the target audience (read “Customer”.)
(more…)Steps from a Virtual Concept to Finished Work using 3D Printed Components
Posted: June 3, 2021 in 3D printing, Art and Design, UncategorizedThe following is the step by step process I use to develop a design or artistic idea into three dimensional reality using modern tools and technology. The images are from a current project just completed, and are not retouched, so you can see the raw process as it progressed.
Creative Process – In the virtual universe
While we once used pens and pencils to create drawings, when the end product is to be produced directly as a 3D assembly, creating designs within solid-model CAD software is a more direct, and more satisfying process. In my case, all sculptures and designs are created in SolidWorks. This includes all components to be utilized, to insure the final product will fit together. This is a highly iterative process, that may entail dozens of attempts and variations, as the design matures and evolves.
