A 12×2.4m memorial wall at Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery may look like the finest granite, but it’s actually black Medite MDF inscribed using Alphacam technology.
The wall, which forms part of the cemetery’s City of the Dead exhibition, was originally intended to be cut in stone by a mason, but the expense and length of time it would have taken – about six months – were prohibitive. However, the MDF/Alphacam version was just two weeks in development and the lettering took just 14 hours.
Jim O’Brien, managing director of Display Contracts International, which constructed the wall, said several timbers and finishes were considered before opting for lacquered MDF.
“To replicate the headstone look we needed the finished product to have a black background, with an etched appearance to the lettering, which, when you see it on stone, is always lighter. To achieve this effect the panels were pre-lacquered before running through the [Busellato] CNC machine.”
The text – quotes from headstones in the cemetery – was carried across from file to file over the seven vertical panels that make up the wall.
The files were imported into Alphacam where the tooling was applied and the CNC code generated.
“It took about two weeks of development from when we saw the original picture images files to being ready to produce the panels,” said Mr O’Brien.
“The CNC code was saved onto the server from the computer where it was generated offline and then the Busellato machined each panel in around two hours.”
A number of stone masons have said the wall is as good – if not better than – a genuine stone version as there are no flaws in it.
