Additive manufacturing company Renishaw has created an additively manufactured sun dial for historic Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, UK.
The design was manufactured on a Renishaw AM250 metal additive manufacturing system from stainless steel. Once completed, the sun dial was mounted on to the empty pedestal using a specially designed mounting unit, ensuring correct alignment with the sun. The design incorporated specific features to link the sun dial to Berkeley Castle, including 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).
‘The basic design of a sundial might be simple; a stick in the ground and some markers to indicate the hours,’ said Friends of Berkeley Castle member, Bob Hunt, who designed the sundial. ‘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.’
This story is reprinted from material from Renishaw, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
