• Question: How do 3d printers help you with your daily job?

    Asked by ngovani1 to Graham, Luke, Maksim, Ruth on 20 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      i dont use them at all sorry.

      thanks

      claire

    • Photo: Graham Wiggins

      Graham Wiggins answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      ngovani1
      Hi,
      3D priters are not used in my role, I have seen a model of a new building made by a 3d printer. It’s in our visitors centre.
      sorry !
      Graham

    • Photo: Maksim Schastny

      Maksim Schastny answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      Hello,

      We have used 3D printers in college for some projects. They are very useful and can solve a range of problems.

      They are irreplaceable when it comes to prototyping as you can print a large amount of things of different complexity. One of the printers at college was used to print a working model of sterling engine in just few days.

      As well as prototyping they are very good at producing actual items you may want to use. The best thing about them is that almost all CAD software packages are able to communicate with 3D printers. This means you can create a design and then just send it to a printer and later on you will have the item on your desk.

      In my opinion they should be introduced more in colleges and school as they give a good introduction to more complex machines such as CNC lathe.

    • Photo: Luke Fry

      Luke Fry answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      This is something that I am really interested in and have read quite a bit into, also I have a small amount of experience. In my group we have a couple of 3D printers. They use different methods to each other. One uses a photo-polymer ‘goo’ and breaks the piece you are printing into very thin layers. It then uses what is essentially a projector to shine an image of the layer it is printing in UV light. This cures the polymer and it moves onto the next layer. The other machine which is much cleaner uses reels of plastic which are passed through a heated nozzle that follows the route of the layer being printed.
      We are also expecting the arrival of a very large machine capable of using different metals. This type is called a Direct Metal Laser Sintering machine.
      Within our group we are undergoing a process of changing the way we think about design and how we make things to include this amazing technology.
      Personally, I have used the 3D printer we have to produce some of the parts for my board game including the playing pieces which are rockets and the tokens that represent individual parts.
      3D printing is AWESOME and will only get better and better.
      Some of the people in my group are currently doing a project researching into 3D printing of heavy metals!

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