Along with the subgroup of tools, this hundred-plus item collection is the most significant part of the industrial design collection. It features works from the period of the 1940s to present. Control levers are stored in the collection from the first plaster R 50 capstan lathe on a 1:1 scale.
The original plaster model and laminated 1:1 copy of the horizontal milling machines by Zdeněk Kovář from 1945 - a representative sample of his style at that time in industrial design, influenced by an organic morphology and technological possibilities for manufacturing cast-iron boxes for machines - warrants a look.
A more numerous group features models of cutting, moulding and textile machines from late 1960s till the early 1990s. They represent not only the area in which designer work for Czechoslovak industry developed the most clearly in that given period, but also the fundamental changes in formal solution of machines, influenced by the use of sheet metal. In addition to the work of Kovář’s students J. Lahoda, M. Klíma, V. Autrata, V. Reissner and other designers (designer of the Plzeň Škoda car Jan Němeček) this period is mainly represented by the work of Svatopluk Král, the main designer of the Research Institute of Machine Tools and Machining (VÚOSO) active since the mid 1970s along with another graduate of the department of moulding machines and tools in Zlín (Gottwaldov), Pavel Kmoch. Several studies on machine tools from designer studios of tertiary schools have emerged in recent years.
A very important collection consists of the designs of textile machines that were worked on by specialised artists František Jurásek, Alois Richtr and Miroslav Kouba starting in the 1950s, and others as well later. They represent systematically developed modern designer solutions for machines, including world-unique jet designs.
Mechanical engineering is also represented by original design models of other machines and equipment (dredger or platform for a dam from the 1980s by Jan Tatoušek and Ivan Moucha, an operating unit for a grain mill by M. Čevela from the 1970s, etc.), which testify to the designer work in seemingly secluded areas.
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