3D Printing in Practice |
| Sam Beckman Year 11, ASHS |
In 2014 Sam Beckman, then year 11 student at Albany Senior High School, approached technology teacher Katriona Main to ask if he could do some 3D printing for his Impact Project, here is Katriona's case study.
"My response to Sam was that would be a fantastic idea, but........the school did not have a 3D printer. So we discussed whether Sam would be interested in exploring the possibility of the school purchasing a 3D printer. He thought this would be a great project.
Sam set about exploring the availability, specs and costs of different 3D printers and filaments to determine which would be most suitable for the school. He liaised with different suppliers over a number of weeks and invited Tim Carr of Mindkits in to demonstrate the Ultimaker 3D printer.
Sam explained to Tim exactly what Impact Projects were about "they are one day a week when students take control of their learning and develop a project that helps the community". In this instance it was the school community.
The Ultimaker was duly purchased, in kitset form and Sam led a posse of friends in building the kitset under the watchful tutilage of Tim, from Mindkits. Tim later told me that he was blown away with Sam and his teams work ethic and it was one of his smoothest builds ever!
Fast forward to term 2, 2015 and Sam has started to develop a production process and costing structure for students wishing to 3D print their own items either for class work or personal interest. Sam is now negotiating with the IT department to get "cura", the 3D printing software installed on computers across the school. The Ultimaker is proudly housed in the fabric-product design room where students are currently experimenting with combining 3D printing with textiles as part of their prototyping unit which combines "the old, the new and kiwi identity".
Katriona Main
Miro Team Leader
Product Design
Albany Senior High School
Miro Team Leader
Product Design
Albany Senior High School
Are we ready to 3D print our own clothes?
Sam's use of 3D modelling prompted me to see what other ground breaking work is being done by 3D printers. My search linked me to the work of fashion student, Danit Peleg, who has designed an entire fashion collection using a 3D printer at home.http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/jul/28/are-we-ready-to-print-our-own-3d-clothes
What is 3D printing?
3D printing is an additive technology in which
objects are built up in a great many very thin layers. The first
commercial 3D printer was based on a technique called stereolithography.
This was invented by Charles Hull in 1984.
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed
object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an
object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the
entire object is created.
Many different materials can be used for 3D printing, such as ABS plastic, PLA,
polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, stereolithography materials
(epoxy resins), silver, titanium, steel, wax, photopolymers and
polycarbonate. https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=3d+printing&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=1cW-VaOuDqHFmwXdlLHIDA
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