Radiate Floor Lamp

Investigating alternative recycling processes outside of the mainstream infrastructure.

All image credits: Eddy Zhang

Materials:

rPETG light diffuser

Tasmanian oak stand

Overview:

This project seeks to deal with the issue of excessive plastic waste by investigating alternative recycling processes outside of the mainstream infrastructure. My exploration of this issue took the form of a light diffuser that was robotically 3D printed in clear rPETG (recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol).

The Radiate Floor Lamp was designed so that each component of the lamp can be disassembled, facilitating replacement, upcycling, recycling, or proper disposal. This approach minimises environmental harm while extending the lamp’s lifespan and functionality. With a dimmer switch allowing users to adjust the brightness according to their specific space and needs, the floor lamp offers ambient lighting, thereby enhancing its adaptability and ensuring a tailored lighting experience.

The final form of the light diffuser was designed with the manufacturing process in mind. The setup of our robotic FDM printer had a thick nozzle, resulting in layer heights of 2.5mm as opposed to traditional FDM printer layer heights of around 0.1–0.4mm. Thus, there was a focus on featuring and highlighting horizontal patterns to better leverage the aesthetic qualities of the thick layers consequential to the unique manufacturing process.