Gloucestershire-based Renishaw (
www.renishaw.com) has worked with the Friends of Berkeley Castle to create an additively manufactured sun-dial for the 12th-century castle, using its own 3-D printing technology.
The bespoke sun-dial, specific to just one latitude and longitude, was unveiled at the Friends’ summer party last year and can now be seen in the castle’s garden.
Retired mechanical engineer Bob Hunt designed the sun-dial with features that link it to the castle, including the castle arch and door, a moat and a cobbled courtyard. By careful design, the sun-dial directs a beam of light onto the dial face at midday.
This beam of light also indicates the spring and autumn equinoxes. The sun-dial was made from stainless steel powder on a Renishaw AM250 metal additive-manufacturing system.
Mr Hunt explained: “The basic design of a sundial might be simple — a stick in the ground with some markers to indicate the hours.
"However, the constraints of the site meant that more work would be required to create an acceptable instrument to reliably indicate the correct time throughout daylight hours — an instrument that would befit the castle and its surroundings.”
Ralph Fawkes, chief development engineer at Renishaw’s Rapid Manufacturing Centre, said: “Renishaw supports a large number of local initiatives by giving grants to charities, supporting schools, sponsoring music and arts festivals and contributing engineering expertise to projects like this.”