Renishaw, has collaborated with the Friends of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, UK to 3D print a sun dial for the historic, 12th century Berkeley Castle.
Retired mechanical engineer and member of the group, which supports the Berkeley Castle Charitable Trust, Bob Hunt, designed the sun dial according to the castle’s latitude and longitude, incorporating the Berkeley Arch and Door in the design of the gnomon (vertical piece) and a moat and cobbled courtyard on the dial face (horizontal piece).
Manufactured in stainless steel on a Renishaw AM250 metal additive manufacturing system, the sun dial has been carefully designed to show additional information such as the Vernal and Autumnal equinox. An additional feature achieved by precision engineering and careful design, means that the shadow cast by the extended arch will align with the light beam only at midday on the equinox.
“The basic design of a sundial might be simple; a stick in the ground and some markers to indicate the hours,” explained Friends of Berkeley Castle Member, Bob Hunt. “However, the constraints of the site meant that more work would be required to create an acceptable instrument to reliably indicate the correct time throughout daylight hours, that would befit the Castle, its surroundings and its history.”
The finished sun dial was unveiled last Summer and is now being displayed in the Castle’s garden.
“Renishaw is a world leader in precision manufacturing as well as the largest private employer in Gloucestershire,” explained Ralph Fawkes, Chief Development Engineer at the Rapid Manufacturing Centre at Renishaw. “This put Renishaw in a good position to support the project and allowed us to use our metal 3D printing expertise to produce an important object for a historic setting.”
