If there is one thing synonymous with Fox Sports, it's Cleatus, the animated robot that takes you in and out of commercial breaks.
Well, Fox Sports wanted a giant, real-life robot for the company's lobby. For this, they hired Thingergy, a design firm based out of Burbank, Calif., that "makes things” — which is only partially accurate. The company makes awesome things, typically for the entertainment industry, such as a real-life sculpture of Pogo from The Umbrella Academy.
Cleatus is a massive, 14-foot tall statue that was entirely 3D printed. In 10 weeks, a crew of roughly 20 people printed 142 parts in-house. The project amassed 2,681 hours of print time (about 112 days worth of time), but that doesn't include outsourced parts.
The 3D-printed robot is attached to an aluminum frame, which is attached to a 2,000-pound base for support.
Thingergy outsourced Cleatus's face mask to Scicon Technologies, a rapid prototyping service bureau in California that printed the mask on a 3D Systems SLA machine. And Pictographics, out of Las Vegas, printed 10 parts, including the calves, shins, pelvis and thighs on a Massivit 1800D.
Among Thingergy's equipment, which the company affectionately calls its "Robot Army," is the 3DP Workbench from 3D Platform. 3DP is no stranger to massive builds — the large-format printer has done previous work, like a life-size copy of an employee, and a massive version of my head (it's pre-beard, so you know that some time has passed).
Jonathan Schroeder, president of 3D Platform, says Thingergy’s Cleatus statue is “a truly impressive work of art.” According to Schroeder, 3D Platform’s high-flow extruders were a key part of making some of the large parts very quickly.
After Cleatus was primed and painted, it was installed in the Fox Sports lobby, where it now holds a 75-inch television.
