Formless Generative Design Heels from Japan
The Japanese design lab, Digital Artisan has partnered up with chemicals company, JSR Corporation and Castem, a manufacturer of precision casting parts to create the ‘Formless’ high heel shoe using the M2 3D printer from Carbon. Director of Digital Artisan, Masaharu Ono, lead the design and modeling of the Formless generative design heels with the help of the Japanese shoe designer, Ayato Tsumagari.
The 3D printer from Carbon was used to create the 3D printed molds developed from generative design to form the precise casts of the wedged metal heels. Just like the terms topology optimisation or lattice design, generative design has a specific meaning. This type of design aims to mimic nature’s evolutionary approach to design while maintaining all specified engineering design constraints. In other words, in can also be described as an organic type of design.
In that sense, the generative design technology used to manufacture the heel also allows personalisation of the shoe. Indeed, each pair of shoes can be customised to each user by changing the shape of the design.
The process produced intricate webbed formed heels that were then sent to Carbon’s M2 3D printer, which uses its patented Digital Light Synthesis (DLS technology). Carbon’s technology has been used also by Riddell to 3D print the insides of customised helmets. Not to mention its project with Adidas for the Futurecraft 4D shoe.
If you are interested in 3D printing in the shoe industry, you can find out more HERE.
