Stylish wine storage with 3D-printed parts

At the recent IMM furniture fair in Cologne, Germany, a group of 15 prospective wood technicians from the Gsechs University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg presented a very elegant wine storage series, called Dolio.

Made from teak/oak, cork and slate veneer, each of the designs integrate self-lubricating and maintenance-free plain bearing components from igus.



The name ‘Dolio’ derives from the Latin word ‘dolium’ (barrel).

The project idea for the series was created by a task entitled ‘unusually open’.

After various prototypes, a small series of 20 pieces of furniture was developed and manufactured within a few months.

Dolio is a vertical bottle storage for wines, in which five bottles can be turned via a lid.

A slate-veneered door with steel fittings, which pivots 360-degrees around the body closes the system.

To make sure that the door slides both smoothly and quietly, the wood technicians used the iglidur B160 Tribo-Tape on the steel fittings.

These liners are characterised by, among other things, their extreme wear resistance and low coefficient of friction.

To lock the door, the wood technicians decided to make the springs themselves using additive manufacturing.

“After some testing, we decided to print the spring clips with the iglidur I150 filament from igus,” explains Jorrit Burmeister, wood technician at Gsechs. “The plastic material is very tough and easy to work with; it is also very wear-resistant, withstanding the constant loads in the Dolio.”

The iglidur I150 materials is characterised by high abrasion resistance – parts 3D printed with this material are up to 50 times more wear-resistant than standard materials.

For designers or engineers who do not have their own 3D printer, igus offers a 3D printing service for wear parts, made from both the iglidur tribofilaments and its own laser sintered materials iglidur I3 and iglidur I6.

Simply upload the design file, choose the material, calculate prices and order the individual parts directly HERE.