Maya Ben David, a designer from Israel has come up with a 3D printing application that is less about the visual in the context of the home. This application is about the purely practical for a facet of our lifestyles that is very much hidden away from sight. Bypass is a system case study of water pipe fittings. These seemingly mundane products are a feature of almost every home but play a vital part in our modern living. Normally water systems have very specific standards of fittings: 90, 45 and T shape angles allowing the pipe to be constructed only at these angles.
According to Maya’s Bypass project, by using 3D printing for designing and producing the fittings we are no longer bound by the abilities and costs of the metal industry. We can create alternative fittings according to how we wish the pipes [to] go. Each Bypass component can match existing metal or new printed parts.
Bypass presents a range of pragmatic solutions to unusual pipe orientations. The designer has addressed the problem in a systematic way, creating a new range of possibilities for pipe fittings that are also compatible with existing standards. This is not 3D printing to create show-piece forms that defy expectation as to how the product could appear, rather, these are logical items produced with a conventional product design mentality that display their worth by their functionality alone.
