2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Our goal in this project is to save and preserve paintings and artifacts through the application of 3d printing technology. We will be collecting data through 3d structure scans of paintings and will have a full model of these artifacts with color and all other details associated. Then this project's goal is to bring this artifact back with a full replica that would be difficult to distinguish to the untrained eye. We have created preliminary prints using FDM printers that successfully captured some of the brush strokes that are created during impressionism style art. Impressionism era art was top choice for this project due to having some of the most depth of paint from all of history's art phases. When looking at a picture of this art you would not be able to capture the full feel the painting was attempting to convey so with this process we will be capable of saving all of the detail that is within art pieces of this time period and others. We will be attempting to utilize a binder jet 3d printer to replicate the art. Binder jet printers operate on the principle of setting down a layer of powder and then coloring that layer like a normal paper printer would. This process is repeated for every layer until the painting has been finished in a full color model. This technology has not been utilized for the field of humanities and our goal is to expand the horizons of this process and show the applications that are possible in the future.