A 34-foot section of a Revolutionary War-era gunboat is housed in the New York State Museum, but some of its parts are deteriorating.
Michael Lucas, curator of historical archeology at the State Museum, reached out to RPI for help to scan a rusting iron-hearth ring and a cannonball. He wanted to preserve the artifacts and continue to keep versions of them on display for museumgoers. Scanning and 3D printing the artifacts allowed him to do both.
“It's always best to present objects to the public rather than just have them behind the scenes," he said. "Of course, we have an obligation to protect the collections that we have, but we want to get as much of the collection as we can out to the public and allow them to actually interact with it.”
Mike Rosado, operations manager of RPI's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, says the partnership allows the lab to apply its technology in new ways
“I've been working in 3D printing for about a little over 10 years now, and this is the first time I've been able to apply it in this way," he said. "A lot of 3D printing is done for industry or manufacturing, for airplanes and cars, so it's kind of cool to be able to do this for a museum, so that we can share these artifacts with the public in an easier way.”
