Sculpture is one of the oldest art of mankind. Its history is almost as long as that of human history. In dealing with stones, our ancestors not only created labor tools to make a living, but also created sculptures of aesthetic significance. People of different ages have left a wealth of sculptures in different ways.
Started in 1980s, with the continuous progress of human civilization, the forging stainless steel sculpture gradually appeared in the landscape design and urban decoration, but the the understanding of forging process is far less than the casting process. Now let's have talk about the processing of forging sculpture fabrication.
The production of stainless steel sculpture is generally divided into scheme design, model optimization and enlargement, fabrication and surface treatment.
1.1 Scheme design
Mainly aimed at the original design of stainless steel sculpture, considered its environment, its content, form, color and so on, working out a complete set of sculpture programs.
1.2 Model optimization and enlargement
After design scheme is fixed, proceeding with the optimization in the following ways.
1.2.1 For simple sculptures, we can just enlarge the temporary inner structure directly according to its 3D model.
1.2.2 If the sculpture is comparatively complex, it is necessary to print a small maquette first based on original 3D model, and then make a scaled clay model accordingly to do detail adjustment and shape optimization. Next, usually we will duplicate a 1:1 hard material model such as fiberglass or CNC hard foam.
1.3 Fabrication
1.3.1 First, the exterior surface is divided into many small areas of different shapes (see the figure) according to the design and shape of the sculpture, and each area is numbered. The raw material used for cold processing of stainless steel is prepared stainless steel plates of different thickness. The workers draw the corresponding shape on the stainless steel plate according to each numbered area. As the stainless steel plate is flat and the appearance of the sculpture is three-dimensional, the area of each piece can not be too large, and small pieces should leave some area for process facilitation.
Second is material cutting. Generally, the thickness of forging stainless steel sculpture is 2.5-6mm. Plasma cutting is used to cut out each area for numbering. All numbers must conform with the number of each area of the sculpture.
1.3.2 After cut in blocks, the stainless steel panel should be forged. The stainless steel plate are forged on the mould. Based on different model shapes, cutting material and proceeding with forging according to its fluctuation changes. It can be forged on any tangible solid object. After, take the forged stainless steel plate to have a comparison with model. Once every forged blocks is considered to be correct and perfectly conform with the model, we can weld them together from top to bottom or bottom to top and each piece should be adjusted to the model.
1.3.3 Finally is shape forming. After the shape is forged correctly, it shall be welded together according to the requirements of the artwork design (by electric welding and argon arc welding). Usually, spot welding is used to joint, and then welding wire is used to seal the seam.
By now, the whole sculpture shape is almost finished.
1.3.4 And the next thing is stainless steel main structure production. For large stainless steel sculpture, internal main structure is required to support it according to force analysis and weight bearing, which requires analysis and calculation of the force of the structure, so as to design a reasonable internal steel structure and complete the production. Finally, the finished stainless steel surface and internal structure are to be welded.
1.4 Surface treatment
Firstly, with preliminary grinding. Using grinding wheel to flatten the weld seam and any excess. Secondly, a polishing surface sculpture also need to be further polished by soft wheel (cloth wheel), and with polishing paste to increase lubrication and make sure the final artwork is more shinning, thus to give a good sense of visual beauty. Different surface treatment effects can be achieved according to the requirements, usually polished, painted, brushed and so on.
In this way, a complete forged stainless steel sculpture is finished. To some extent, the forging technology has made up for some defects on the surface of the casting process, so that the surface effect of the sculpture is more perfect.
