Engineers at Callum has created a one-of-a-kind Christmas tree ornament using the latest 3D printing technology from Israeli firm XJet using thousands of inkjet nozzles simultaneously moving millions of ultrafine drops. The zirconia ceramic ornament is in the shape of the Aston Martin CALLUM Vanquish 25 by R-Reforged.
According to the design house, the ornament creation process sees temperatures hit 1250° Celsius during the sintering stage while the drops of material create ultra fine layers.
The Aston Martin CALLUM Vanquish 25 by R-Reforged ornament is made of droplets of material.Photo courtesy of Callum
This is the first time that XJet has used its zirconia 3D printing process to create a Christmas decoration. It is typically used for printing a variety of components for automotive, medical devices, electronics and end user parts in a variety of applications.
“Creating this Vanquish taught us a lot about the design opportunities that 3D printed ceramics bring to future projects, both in automotive but also other design commissions we are developing,” says CALLUM’s David Fairbairn. “It’s the advent of a new generation of materials.”
The full-size Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25 by R-Reforged features over 350 engineering, material, and design changes from the original Aston Martin Vantage, all overseen by legendary auto design Ian Callum. During its development phase, the model covered over 20,000 miles of testing on a wide variety of U.K. roads, of varying quality, in addition to time at Michelin’s Ladoux proving ground.
“After a year of piling on the miles in our development prototype, I’m confident we’ve hit the targets we set ourselves of a very responsive but supple car,” says head of engineering at R-Reforged, Adam Donfrancesco. “There was a perception that much of what we planned was aesthetic but the way the car drives, feels, goes, stops and sounds is actually where a lot of our efforts have been focused.
The first batch of cars has been built with initial designs destined for Europe and Latin America.
