Crystal clear in 3D
Many people looking at the Seawork awards might have wondered about how it’s possible to get a 3D drawing into a solid, clear block.
In fact, it’s down to a laser: “The beam is focused on a three-dimensional coordinate inside the crystal – which, by the way, has to be very pure, or it won’t work,” explained Andrea Hatcher of Laser Crystal, the company that created the awards.
The laser then creates a high-power pulse, etching a tiny dot below the surface before moving onto the next coordinate – the semi-translucent curves are actually made of thousands of very small points.
The nice thing for an engine or technology OEM is that the image can be taken straight from a CAD file, putting innovative designs on show in a rather elegant setting.
