This is one of those who would have thought about it as a problem stories. It's great to read because it helps you think about the problems most of us already have solutions we take for granted. At the bottom it does have some AI sprinkles... Use an AI tool to figure out the colors of bricks to fill in the missing link.
The top comment on the article itself has a great idea to map colors to textures so the blind could identify the colors as well. With the rise of cheap knock offs of LEGO these days, I wonder if one of those could do that.
Lego bricks are injection moulded, so if you put a texture on the sides of the bricks, it will either be impossible to get them out of the moulds or you'd have to have a complex moving mould to release them, which would probably massively slow down production
1. The texture on the top slope of roof bricks is a standard mold finishing (acid etch?) that works fine with mold release.
2. Headlight grille bricks in the 70s used to have texture, along with printing. I'm not in the know but I suspect the texture could be a byproduct of the printing machine that was used then. (I've only seen 2000s era trade machines that used inkjet printing post-moulding.)
3. The 1x2 brick with vertical grooves on one face, horizontal grooves on opposite face... this has been common since the 80s! 1979's Galaxy Explorer had two of them (I think).
"Corrugated Steel" or spaceship "greebling" texture.
Trying to puzzle out that mold, I imagine you need a moving insert textured with the horizontal grooves.
Some sets have had dozens or hundreds of that brick (Star Wars), without a noticeable impact on price/piece?
1 - No problem, you can just make the texture not have any overhangs when viewed from the top
2 - I'm not sure what piece you mean :/
3 - That's a very good point that I hadn't thought of. That's piece 2877, and I'm not sure how that would be manufactured... You could potentially have one part on the "bottom" of the mould extend out with the horizontal grooves, and have the vertical grooves on the "top" half of the mould. When the mould separates, the horizontal grooves are locked into the bottom half of the mould, but the vertical ones slide out. Then, when the moulds are fully separated, the part can fall off the bottom half sideways. I hope that makes sense, I don't know how better to describe it. However, that only works if you can cleanly separate the moulds and then have the piece fall off, if the texture was on all sides then you wouldn't be able to separate the mould halves or extract the piece without a complex separating assembly
I think that idea is worth testing. Putting a symbol on top of each stud. There could be a tactile symbol per color.
I imagine an aftermarket machine to heat-stamp this on. It would have to be very precise. Pressure would displace plastic and easily change the clutch power.
You could vary the heights, but it would have an effect on "clutch power" (how well the bricks stick together), and Lego is very big on making sure that's up to standard. Its often what separates Lego bricks from clones. Also you'd struggle to make a kind of braille pattern on some pieces, like 1x1 bricks.
You could try to make the tops of the bumps textured, but that's where Lego puts their trademark, and I don't think they'd compromise on that, since its another protection against fake bricks that claim they're Lego but are worse. I also don't know how well you could feel textural differences in an area that small
Injection molding manuals long ago suggested putting some text like the trademark around the point the sprue enters. Camouflage. I had a little Aha moment when I read that and recalled noticing the dimple on old bricks.
With some exceptions (80s plates with sprue on short end) I expect to find the sprue mark on a corner stud.
Anyhow I'm imagining after-market ways to add texture.
This is one of those who would have thought about it as a problem stories. It's great to read because it helps you think about the problems most of us already have solutions we take for granted. At the bottom it does have some AI sprinkles... Use an AI tool to figure out the colors of bricks to fill in the missing link.
Question: do the colors really matter?
A 1970s ad from Lego played up how kids don't see a problem making their beautiful truck out of whatever pieces were available.
I would have been a color snob, but all I had in 1979 were red bricks.
The top comment on the article itself has a great idea to map colors to textures so the blind could identify the colors as well. With the rise of cheap knock offs of LEGO these days, I wonder if one of those could do that.
Lego bricks are injection moulded, so if you put a texture on the sides of the bricks, it will either be impossible to get them out of the moulds or you'd have to have a complex moving mould to release them, which would probably massively slow down production
I know, right? Exceptions:
1. The texture on the top slope of roof bricks is a standard mold finishing (acid etch?) that works fine with mold release.
2. Headlight grille bricks in the 70s used to have texture, along with printing. I'm not in the know but I suspect the texture could be a byproduct of the printing machine that was used then. (I've only seen 2000s era trade machines that used inkjet printing post-moulding.)
3. The 1x2 brick with vertical grooves on one face, horizontal grooves on opposite face... this has been common since the 80s! 1979's Galaxy Explorer had two of them (I think). "Corrugated Steel" or spaceship "greebling" texture.
Trying to puzzle out that mold, I imagine you need a moving insert textured with the horizontal grooves.
Some sets have had dozens or hundreds of that brick (Star Wars), without a noticeable impact on price/piece?
1 - No problem, you can just make the texture not have any overhangs when viewed from the top
2 - I'm not sure what piece you mean :/
3 - That's a very good point that I hadn't thought of. That's piece 2877, and I'm not sure how that would be manufactured... You could potentially have one part on the "bottom" of the mould extend out with the horizontal grooves, and have the vertical grooves on the "top" half of the mould. When the mould separates, the horizontal grooves are locked into the bottom half of the mould, but the vertical ones slide out. Then, when the moulds are fully separated, the part can fall off the bottom half sideways. I hope that makes sense, I don't know how better to describe it. However, that only works if you can cleanly separate the moulds and then have the piece fall off, if the texture was on all sides then you wouldn't be able to separate the mould halves or extract the piece without a complex separating assembly
Why can't you vary the height of the posts on the top of the piece? Or, add some nubbins on the posts/surface: isn't that what braille is?
I think that idea is worth testing. Putting a symbol on top of each stud. There could be a tactile symbol per color.
I imagine an aftermarket machine to heat-stamp this on. It would have to be very precise. Pressure would displace plastic and easily change the clutch power.
You could vary the heights, but it would have an effect on "clutch power" (how well the bricks stick together), and Lego is very big on making sure that's up to standard. Its often what separates Lego bricks from clones. Also you'd struggle to make a kind of braille pattern on some pieces, like 1x1 bricks.
You could try to make the tops of the bumps textured, but that's where Lego puts their trademark, and I don't think they'd compromise on that, since its another protection against fake bricks that claim they're Lego but are worse. I also don't know how well you could feel textural differences in an area that small
Injection molding manuals long ago suggested putting some text like the trademark around the point the sprue enters. Camouflage. I had a little Aha moment when I read that and recalled noticing the dimple on old bricks.
With some exceptions (80s plates with sprue on short end) I expect to find the sprue mark on a corner stud.
Anyhow I'm imagining after-market ways to add texture.
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it is a nice story focused on people doing good; not one focused on cutting-edge technology. not everything needs to be "ground breaking".
How is that clickbait? The title appears to be completely supported by the content of the article.
It takes someone to actually do the thing with the tools that already allow for it.
I guess there’s still a few low hanging fruit out there.