Another edition of 3D printed parts spotted in the wild. This time it is on the street lights of the new bathing platform at O Parrote, in A Coruña.
The last one was a barcode scanner holder at IKEA , also here in A Coruña.
The place
This summer A Coruña opened a floating platform at O Parrote, right in front of the old town, with nautical services and a bit of hospitality. The idea is to get back a spot where people traditionally went for a swim (La Opinión A Coruña ).
The walkway along the railing is lit by a row of solar bollards, the FLAMINIA from Photinus Schréder.
The bollard
FLAMINIA is a self-contained solar bollard: no cables, no trench, just bolt it down. The vertical panel on the front is not decoration, it is the solar module. Some numbers from the product sheet :
| Height | 1070 mm (242 × 52 mm footprint) |
| Solar | 2 × 28 Wp monocrystalline modules, mounted vertically |
| Battery | LiFePO4, 12.8 V, 230 Wh (18 Ah), 3 to 5 days of autonomy |
| Light | 5 LEDs, 3000 K, 700 to 2300 lm, 6 to 22 W |
| Body | Aluminium, polyester powder coat, RAL 7016 anthracite grey |
| Protection | IP65 / IK06 (battery IPX8, LED module IP67) |
The panels are vertical so snow and leaves cannot settle on them. On a floating platform in Galicia, snow is not much of a problem, but salt spray and seagull droppings probably are.
The light comes from a 5-LED module inside the square window at the top, pointing down onto the deck. The datasheet lists three standard dimming profiles: 100% all night, dimming to 40% in the middle of the night, or switching off for part of the night.
The printed part
Just below the window there is a small rounded-rectangle insert. Up close it is obviously 3D printed: you can see the top-layer pattern and the perimeters, in a grey that is almost, but not quite, the RAL 7016 of the body.
It sits flush in a recess in the aluminium, with a nice tight fit and rounded corners that match the cutout. Someone measured it properly.
So what is it for?
I honestly did not know, so I went through the installation instructions . The product photos on the sheet show nothing in that spot, but the line drawings in the installation guide do. Zooming into the vector drawing, that recess holds something that looks like a small slide or rocker switch:
My best guess is that it is the bollard’s service switch. Solar bollards ship with the battery disconnected (so it does not drain in a warehouse or turn on inside a box), and the installer switches it on during commissioning. Other solar bollards hide that switch under a rubber cap so nobody passing by can flip it.
If that is right, the printed part is a cover for the switch. The original cap got lost, did not fit, or was never there, and someone printed a replacement that matches the cutout. On a public bathing platform full of curious kids, a switch that turns the light off is exactly the kind of thing you want covered.
I am not 100% sure about this. If you work at Schréder, or installed these, I would love to know what is actually under there.
Pablo.