Futuristic furniture design: The Rex Axon 3D Printed Conference Table

Can your office get an upgrade? When it comes to luxury furniture design, Rex Axon might just be the next coveted item on any CEO’s list. It claims to be the world’s first 3D printed conference table. It certainly will get everyone turning their heads to see the curvaceous structure a design inspired by neural networks. It is the first table of its kind and designed and produced by Polish companies Wolf and Patech. 3D printing in furniture design has been going on for some years and beyond some of the beautiful concepts being created, the technology has a few advantages for the industry, such as reduced costs up front and stock costs, faster implementation of modifications and unique designs.

At four meters long and over one meter wide, the futuristic designed furniture was printed entirely in one piece. With hand made finishing touches and painted in Ferrari Rosso color, this unique bionic creation is not just appealing to the eye, but at 260 kilos, the table withstands 2.6 tons of pressure, which means it can even hold the weight of a car. This is usually one of the big concerns in furniture designed with 3D technology, especially for everyday pieces, like chairs and tables, where the designs are pretty to look at but their durability still needs some improvement.

The Rex Axon has been printed in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology and is made out of PET material -which is commonly used in the construction industry and for water bottle packaging. FDM is great to build strong, long-lasting and dimensionally stable parts with the best accuracy. Other researchers have recently used it in their work, like the famed racing family Andretti Autosport, advancing FDM 3D printing technology from Stratasys to speed design and develop their cars; in South Korea, researchers at Seoul National University use FDM to explore limitations in creating fashions, and partners of a health institute in Spain use Stratasys FDM machines to 3D print medical models.

It took Wolf six months to build the Rex Axon. First, it was printed on a large-size machine and then finished by Patech, in charge of smoothing the surface, using resin to coat the piece and applying the varnish. Also, after painting the table, it was covered with a ceramic coating in order to protect it from any scratches. Once finished it was photographed next to the limited edition Lamborghini Aventador at the company’s headquarters and famous car museum in Bologna, Italy, showing the aerodynamic similarities between the table and the sports car.

The name itself is a combination of the Latin words Rex, meaning king, and Axon, meaning neuron. Actually, the table showcases a top surface with a pattern that looks like a turtle’s shell, while the base design successfully imitates a neural network connection, which also has a practical application, since less material was used in comparison to other more typical base shapes, while still maintaining its strength. The precursor of this style was Zaha Hadid, who designed the Mesa coffee table, one of the inspirations for Wolf to create the Rex Axon, but other famously concocted designs include Nagami’s chair collection, the Ocke Series and the Batoidea chair by Peter Donders.

In Poland, Wolf is a big name in artistic and functional projects in comprehensive design, scanning and modeling services with the help of industrial technologies. It has one of the largest machine parks in Europe, that allows to print in FDM, SLS and SLA technologies. The Rex Axon might not yet be ready for mass production, but perhaps in the next few years this and other luxurious table models could be delivered to your office or home in just a few days. Would you buy it?