Pantograph
A pantograph is used to trace the contours of a hardcopy or pattern and translate these to the milling machine which cuts the steel mold. The pantograph can control the head of the milling machine in X, Y, and Z directions in order to reproduce all the 3-D detail necessary. The pantograph has a series of adjustable linkages which allows the output to be at a certain scale to the original. In the case of the Micro Collection, the hardcopy of a figure would be 4 times larger, but the pantograph could be adjusted so that the resulting cutter motions were 25% of that. This would yield a mold that was 1/4 the size of the hardcopy, but it would be the size required for production.
Description: Chris Georgoulias