Towards a standard: Designing an open-source clay measuring tool

Abstract

This paper describes early stage research into the development of a common standard for measuring clay hardnesses in craft and design practice. The research has emerged in the context of the development of 3D printing with ceramic paste. The paper initially provides the wider context and motivation for research followed by a review of the development of this new area of practice – an area of innovation that has largely been driven by individual design practitioners through an open source approach. The paper also outlines existing approaches for measuring the plasticity and hardness of clay. The paper presents key re-search objectives in the aim of establishing low-cost methods that can be used for measuring ceramic paste consistencies for 3D printing, as well as other ce-ramic production methods. In response to this research challenge a 3D printed design for a simple measuring devise based on the ‘fall cone’ principle is pre-sented.