Introduction: How to Customize a Radiator Cover

About: Maker, engineer and researcher at the National Research Council of Italy. Generally I'm interested in the topics of Indoor Environmental Quality and its interaction with energy efficiency, 3D printing, open ha…

Step 1: Starting Point

My girlfriend and I had the need to renew the radiator cover in the living room, too old in the shapes and colors that certainly did not suit the modern environment of the room:

Step 2: Design

I then proceeded to create a parametric model that allowed me to play with the shapes using the Voronoi decomposition of the spaces. A draft of the new radiator cover as redesigned is shown here

Step 3: Realization

As you can see the shapes are irregular and it is difficult to get an impeccable result using a simple drill and a hacksaw to make holes on the new panel. So I thought to a convenient alternative, extremely precise: to use a laser cutting machine. The only difficulty was given by the dimensions equal to 88.8x75 cm. I made some calls and thanks to Luca of SpazioGeco I could discover, with great amazement, a wonderful reality: a few steps from Pavia, the ComPVter association with a laser cutting machine that can work surfaces very large up to 100 x 86 cm in dimensions. It was just what I was looking for: in less than 15 minutes the cut was made without any problem. In order to create a sort of contrast (and not only...) I maked a second panel that I painted in opaque black with large holes, to allow the passage of hot air. The two panels were placed one on top of the other and spaced 1 cm.

Step 4: Instalation

I then installed the panel on the old structure of the radiator cover and glazed all in white.

Step 5: Improvement

So I asked myself a question: is it possible to make a radiator cover more functional? And if so, how? The answer came to me looking at a clotheshorse that my girl had placed right next to a radiator: we usually use the dryer but for the sweaters we prefer to dry them the old way. Given this need, I thought: "why not integrate a clotheshorse in the radiator cover? From the thought to the design and implementation the step was short.

Step 6: Video and License

I remind you that this work is released under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) which limits its reproduction and use. For more details please refer to the top right part of this article. Meanwhile, a short video that tells with images what I made