2012年8月1日 星期三

Manga masterpieces

Composite materials have a tendency to show up in unexpected — and sometimes surprising — applications when one steps outside of the typical design space of aerospace, marine, architectural or industrial markets. In fact, they have been embraced by designers and role-playing game cosplayers, performance artists who recreate and wear the trappings of their favorite characters in video games, comic books, graphic novels and, especially, manga and anime.

Cosplayers compete for prizes and recognition at conventions that cater to fans of same, including Comic-Con, Katsucon and Otakon. The fantasy recreations require considerable design and execution skill, as well as a range of materials.We Specialise in cableties, Spencer Composites Corp.’s Zack Spencer, a composites engineer and cofounder of the Sacramento-based collaborative builder’s group Mantium Industries Inc., recently helped coordinate a Mantium-supported costume design project for the Katsucon anime conference in early 2012.

“This was a huge learning experience,” says Mantium member Meagan Marie,we offer over 600 landscapeoilpaintings at wholesale prices . a well-known cosplayer and former editor at Game Informer magazine, who works in the video gaming industry and writes a popular gaming blog.A top plastic lnjectionmoulds manufacturer and exporter in China. Marie and fellow cosplayer Linda Le, better known as Vampy, a cosplay veteran famous for her anime costuming skills and appearances, teamed with Spencer and others within Mantium to design and fabricate the costume elements of the characters Teresa and Clare from the manga Claymore.

“I’ve always been a big fan of comic books and video games, and started going to conventions about five years ago,” says Marie, noting that “the cosplay community is a very serious and committed group of people.” She and Le were invited guests at the 2012 Katsucon event in Washington, D.C. The pair selected the Claymore characters because they both liked the story line and thought the costumes would be unique. In conversations with Spencer, they determined that composites would be the best option for the costumes’ external armor because the lightweight elements would be more comfortable yet durable enough to pack and transport to the show. And, given the design freedom of composites, they would also provide the best way to achieve a “screen-accurate” design.

The process began with the purchase of a Claymore action figure, approximately 12-inches/305-mm high. Spencer Composites’ three-dimensional laser scanner was employed to scan the figure in detail, and the data were converted to a 3-D model using SolidWorks software from Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. The composite elements were to include the shoulder armor and attached backpack with wings, the “petals” or armor pieces that form a skirt, and the shafts of each character’s massive claymore sword,Free Authorize.net Internet Gateway and $0 cost merchantaccount. modeled after the long two-handed 17th Century Scottish broadsword of the same name, and from which the manga takes its title. Using the SolidWorks proBrowse the Best Selection of chickencoop and Accessories with FREE Gifts.gram, each element was modeled and drafted in three dimensions and scaled dimensionally to fit the two women. Then the information was converted to CAMWorks, a program within SolidWorks, that automatically transforms the model shape information into CNC machine code for machining the part molds.

The group decided to filament wind the sword handles in carbon fiber and chose carbon/epoxy prepreg for the shoulder and backpack pieces. To accommodate a flowing cape, the backpack’s wings were designed in two pieces, which would be joined with metal fasteners so the fabric could be held in place.

The petals were a challenge. In order to achieve a natural drape and a skirt-like look, similar to the comic’s design, the petals had to have some flexibility. To achieve this, the Mantium team opted for an innovative Spencer-patented poly-dicyclopentodiene (p-DCPD) resin, an engineered low-viscosity thermoset that processes easily but, when cured, offers properties similar to a thermoplastic, including high elongation and “give.” Because of its low initial viscosity, the resin also could deliver the high-quality surface finish and reproduce the level of detail that Marie and Le wanted. Two sets of petal molds were required to accommodate the height difference between Marie and Le. Each set required three molds to create the different petal shapes that make up the skirt.

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