PROJECT DETAILS
Lima
Perù
Installed Products
The brackets of Lima: the fascinating story of their reproduction
Lima, the capital of Peru, has been illuminated since the end of the 19th century by cast iron lampposts, mostly imported from France. The city administration has recently launched a renovation project, reinstating the old types of brackets. Using the archives, it identified the model most commonly used in the city, of which unfortunately no exemplar had been conserved. The photos and drawings enabled the technicians to draft a resin model that reproduced the original forms as faithfully as possible.
This model was entrusted to Neri Spa to initiate the production of the 413 exemplars needed to illuminate the streets of the old city centre. The model aimed to identify the form, dimensions and decorations of the bracket, but was not suitable for production. The operators in the Neri laboratory removed the undercut that would have impeded maintenance of the form and the decorations when making the sand mould. Moreover, all the figures were reshaped and refined to refresh their form.
Identifying the exact middle of the bracket was a complex but essential operation for the construction of the model. Once this was done, it was possible to create the two twin parts comprising it and the foundry moulds in clay into which the molten iron would be poured.
At the moment of casting, a steel tube was positioned in each bracket to create the empty space needed for the electric cables. This was a delicate operation needing careful study. Inaccurate positioning would have made the bracket unusable. The two twin parts thereby obtained were positioned on the large plate intended for the foundry. In the foundry, the plates with the model were inserted in the moulding plant to create the clay model. The tubes for the passage of the cables were positioned by hand in each pair of moulds and the molten metal was poured onto them. The rough castings were then cleaned to obtain a perfect surface with the various decorations well defined. Lastly, in the Neri workshop, each bracket was manually cleaned of all small burrs, to obtain a perfect product.
With this project, the city of Lima has regained an urban image belonging to its history, but has acted with due attention to progress, equipping the Light 803 lanterns with LED sources.
Year: 2023
Photographs © Antonio Neri, Neri SpA; Edgar Asencios Miranda
Lima, the capital of Peru, has been illuminated since the end of the 19th century by cast iron lampposts, mostly imported from France. The city administration has recently launched a renovation project, reinstating the old types of brackets. Using the archives, it identified the model most commonly used in the city, of which unfortunately no exemplar had been conserved. The photos and drawings enabled the technicians to draft a resin model that reproduced the original forms as faithfully as possible.
This model was entrusted to Neri Spa to initiate the production of the 413 exemplars needed to illuminate the streets of the old city centre. The model aimed to identify the form, dimensions and decorations of the bracket, but was not suitable for production. The operators in the Neri laboratory removed the undercut that would have impeded maintenance of the form and the decorations when making the sand mould. Moreover, all the figures were reshaped and refined to refresh their form.
Identifying the exact middle of the bracket was a complex but essential operation for the construction of the model. Once this was done, it was possible to create the two twin parts comprising it and the foundry moulds in clay into which the molten iron would be poured.
At the moment of casting, a steel tube was positioned in each bracket to create the empty space needed for the electric cables. This was a delicate operation needing careful study. Inaccurate positioning would have made the bracket unusable. The two twin parts thereby obtained were positioned on the large plate intended for the foundry. In the foundry, the plates with the model were inserted in the moulding plant to create the clay model. The tubes for the passage of the cables were positioned by hand in each pair of moulds and the molten metal was poured onto them. The rough castings were then cleaned to obtain a perfect surface with the various decorations well defined. Lastly, in the Neri workshop, each bracket was manually cleaned of all small burrs, to obtain a perfect product.
With this project, the city of Lima has regained an urban image belonging to its history, but has acted with due attention to progress, equipping the Light 803 lanterns with LED sources.
Year: 2023
Photographs © Antonio Neri, Neri SpA; Edgar Asencios Miranda
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