rapman-education's posterous http://rapman-education.posterous.com Most recent posts at rapman-education's posterous posterous.com Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:59:00 -0800 @ClevedonDT students visit 3DS / BfB http://rapman-education.posterous.com/clevedondt-students-visit-3ds-bfb http://rapman-education.posterous.com/clevedondt-students-visit-3ds-bfb

As visitors to my blog will probably know/realise I teach Design and Technology at Clevedon School in the UK.... my year 12/13 students study AS/A2 Product Design. Studying this course not only requires students to design and make products but also to know how they would be made in the "real world"... And many students incorporate 3D printing in their designs, so what could be better to combine all of this into a visit to 3D Systems (Bits from Bytes).

So earlier today we took the students to "BfB HQ" to have a look round. The guys from BfB did a fantastic job of making us welcome with Annabelle introducing the students to the factory with a brief history of how the business was set up and it's development from the RepRap project at Bath University. Iain then gave the students a tour of the facilities including the business side of the company, how it fits in as part of the 3D Systems global company, how sales and marketing are managed and of course a tour of the production facilities. The students were able to see both the RapMan and 3D Touch production systems and how these differ due to RapMan being sold as a kit and the 3D Touch being sold as a "ready to print" machine. It was brilliant for the students to see all this happening "for real" and how the things we have studied such as "Quality Control and Quality Assurance" really do make a difference to the manufacture of products.

From a personal point of view it was also great to meet up again with the guys from BfB... Amazing how many were previously students at my school!

And finally a huge "thank you" to Iain, Annabelle and all the others at BfB for making us so welcome and for sparing their precious time especially when they are in the middle of the rush to get machines out to their resellers in time for Christmas.

Here's what my students had to say...

Bits from Bytes visit

      Bits from Bytes are a UK based company owned by 3D Systems. They design and manufacture low cost 3D printers for rapid prototyping. The company was started in a garage, and has now progressed to two warehouses.

     We were first met by Annabel, who told us briefly about the history of the company. After that we met Iain. He first spoke to us about the marketing aspects of the business, and the admin and finance elements.

     We then went through to the board room, and saw how the machines have evolved and some examples of what could be produced on the 3D printer. This included some alternative materials such as ceramics.

     Following on from this we went down to the factory floor, and observed the different processes involved in production of the Touch 3D machines. He spoke about the different methods they have produced for storing materials, and how they buy materials using the “just in time” method. We also saw the jigs they have produced to make the production method more efficient. Iain also told us how they had recently had seasonal workers in due to a high volume of orders. All of the employees at Bits from Bytes who assemble the machines are trained in all aspects of production.  They each have a trolley which they wheel around the factory floor, and they are responsible for the completion of the machines they are working on.

     To show us a contrast to this, we saw how the kits are put together for the RapMan 3D printers. These are produced in batches and the put in shrink wrap. One employee then moves along the shelves and puts the required quantity of each part into a box, ready to be shipped out.

    At the end of the visit we were given the opportunity to ask any questions we had. We learnt about future plans for the business, and how the company plan to expand as the market does.

    Overall it was a valuable trip, and gave all of us the experience to see what we’ve learnt in our theory lessons in a real life situation.

 

Year 13 students

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:58:27 -0800 3D printing at university http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printing-at-university http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printing-at-university

Some wonderful new 3D printing developments have been happening over the last few weeks that I couldn't omit from my blog...

Early in November Ian Major from 3DS / Bits from Bytes presented a 3D Touch printer to the University of Bristol for use by their students. See the attached photos.

On the BfB forum the university also posted the following .... "The 3DTouch in the atrium of the Merchant Venturer's Building in the University of Bristol has been available to the students for just over a week now and has been in almost continuous use. So far the student have mostly been using it to print cases for their Raspberry Pis, though there has also been a Rubics Cube and I did a Venus de Milo to decorate my desk".

In another development the University of Warwick has just erased some information about some amazing new composite material that they are using for 3DP. The material that they are calling "Carbomorph" is conductive and is being used in some really interesting ways... Flex sensors, capacitive interfaces, and more. Check out this web page for more information http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121122-printing-electronic-sensors-using-low-... . This new material looks like it could have some real impact on 3DP projects made by students in schools if/when it becomes available.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:49:21 -0700 3DS Cubify web apps... In education? http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3ds-cubify-web-apps-in-education http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3ds-cubify-web-apps-in-education

As most people who follow my escapades in 3D printing in education will have probably gathered I a great fan of the 3D Systems / Bits from Bytes machines... currently RapMan kits and the fantastic 3D Touch. But I Also keep an eye on what is happening in the 3D printing world in general. So unsurprisingly I came across Cubify and the Cube printer (unsurprisingly because it is part of the 3DS portfolio of machines). Anyway, one of the impressive things about Cubify is that they are supporting the use of their machines with web apps to generate parts that can be printed on any 3D printer (they export as .stl files).

At the present time there are web apps to create bracelets, earrings, tags, rings, defenders, UFO's, robots, licences and crowns. The apps can be accessed here http://cubify.com/apps.aspx

Now I'm very keen for students to 3D print their own designs but the Cubify apps open up all sorts of new educational opportunities. Now students can easily customise basic designs using the apps that are very easy to use and then print their own ring, bracelet, tag etc. So exposure to 3D printing technology need not only be for those students who have a working knowledge of 3D CAD software! And of course this also means that we can capture these youngsters at an even younger age.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the app to work on my iPad, so I'll have to fire up my trusty old laptop and see how I get on with this. Hopefully in the near future I shall report back and share my experiences.

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:16:17 -0700 3D printing ... In a roundabout way http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printing-in-a-roundabout-way http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printing-in-a-roundabout-way

File

Check out this blog post by Dughall McCormick (twitter @dughall ) http://dughall.com/?p=276

Dughall is an E-learning consultant for the local authority in Kirklees UK. He has been involved in a 3D printing project in primary schools. The students designed and made 3D models of (Olympic) stadiums. It's obvious from the pictures in the blog that everyone involved had a brilliant day... And the quality of the designing by the year 4 students (8/9 year olds) is fantastic.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 31 May 2012 13:54:44 -0700 D&T erupts into Geography http://rapman-education.posterous.com/dt-erupts-into-geography http://rapman-education.posterous.com/dt-erupts-into-geography

It was one of those days today where a "magic moment" happened in school. Isn't it just wonderful when this happens. One of my students who helped out with a presentation about 3D printing for a visitor earlier this week (see the earlier post "To baldly go") came to see me about his Geography homework... Really strange as I'm a D&T teacher! It turned out that he had to do a project homework about how a volcano works.

This student had started to make connections in his mind. He now knows a bit about 3D printing and he did some independent research and stumbled across the teaching and learning resources I published on the BfB wiki http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Geography_-_Mount_Saint_Helens_Volcano ... So he downloaded the files and asked if we could print them... How could I refuse?

... And his Geography teacher was really pleased to receive models of Mt St Helen's before and after it erupted.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Wed, 30 May 2012 12:23:41 -0700 To baldly go... (3D Printing) http://rapman-education.posterous.com/to-baldly-go-3d-printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/to-baldly-go-3d-printing

If you take a look at the pictures in this post you will see what I mean... And I'm not being rude to Tim, I unashamedly "borrowed" some of the title for this post from him... And as you will will also see we are an almost matching pair!

Anyway, to get to the point... On Tuesday (29th May 2012) we were visited in school by Tim Rylands who was on a fact finding mission about 3D printing in schools for his keynote speech at the West of England ICT conference at UWE (University of the West of England) on 4th of July 2012. And where better to go than the D&T department at Clevedon School.

During Tim's visit we were able to get a small group of year 9 (13 years old) students to lead him through the whole process from 3D CAD design through creating the g-code that drives our Bits from Bytes machines to actually printing their products. For a group of students who have only had about 10 hours of experience of Creo Parametric and a couple of hours on 3D printing they were absolutely fantastic. They gave a very clear and concise explanation and some very perceptive insights into the use of this technology in education.... Couldn't have done better myself!

We also managed to squeeze in a bit of time explaining how we are looking at using iPads to create 3D virtual objects for 3D printing and also for laser cutting... There are some wonderful new apps available now, that do 3D scanning so "watch this space", we could be one of the first schools doing this!

And finally...

So, who is Tim? ...With over 25 years of classroom experience, in the UK, and beyond, Tim is now much in demand for training days, conferences and seminars around the world, presenting the results of his work in an inspiring, practical and often humorous way.

“Tim Rylands is an extremely gifted and inspirational teacher, with a love of the creative potential of technology and an excellent rapport with pupils”.

www.timrylands.com/

 

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:37:12 -0700 3D printed pencil sharpener... The final part http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printed-pencil-sharpener-the-final-part http://rapman-education.posterous.com/3d-printed-pencil-sharpener-the-final-part

If you browse back through this blog you will be able to see how one of my students has attempted to design an improved pencil sharpener.

His designs started out as a desktop model and by looking back at his specification for the design decided that something more portable and easier to use for small hands would be a better route to follow.

His next design was really quite innovative and involved fold out cross pieces that formed a handle for better leverage. It also incorporated a standard metal pencil sharpener to do the main job of sharpening... However he was still not entirely satisfied. It was now close to becoming a marketable product but having to rely on another manufacturers sharpener wasn't really a good idea, and the pointy ends of the fold out handles wasn't very aesthetically pleasing... So...

The final iteration of his design addressed these issues... And matches the specification beautifully as you can see in the photos.

I firmly believe that without being able to do 3D printing for his prototypes and adopting an iterative design process this student would still be looking at a chunky desktop product and would never have developed his design in such detail.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:11:48 -0700 New 3D Year 9 printed projects http://rapman-education.posterous.com/new-3d-year-9-printed-projects http://rapman-education.posterous.com/new-3d-year-9-printed-projects

This term I have been working pretty hard with year 8 and year 9 students doing some CAD/CAM projects. We mainly concentrate on 2D CAD in year 8 and 3D in year 9 with students doing some 3D printing of their projects using our 3D Systems Bits from Bytes machines.

One of the favourite projects with the year 9 students is to follow a teaching and learning resource I have made freely available on the BfB wiki called "Mobile Mate" ... Designing and making mobile phone stands. You can of course download it here. http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Mobile_Mate

Just thought you might like to see one of the first prints from the current batch of students,

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:48:28 -0800 Making metal castings from 3D prints http://rapman-education.posterous.com/making-metal-castings-from-3d-prints http://rapman-education.posterous.com/making-metal-castings-from-3d-prints

Why do I listen to my students? It only causes me to have crazy ideas.

So here is the full story.

The student who designed the barman's bottle opener (see a previous post) was looking at how his design would be manufactured "for real" and decided that it would probably need to be die cast... Of course we couldn't contemplate doing that but we do have some casting facilities in school... And we have heard of "lost wax casting", but what about "lost plastic casting" in a traditional sand mould? Errrrr?? This got me thinking, surely at the temperature that aluminium melts the plastic print from our 3D printer would just burn away to nothing. Time for a bit of testing!

With the fume extraction going full blast we placed a sample of ABS in our brazing hearth and played a flame over it... Result a black blob and lots of black smoke. But what about PLA? Tried this too... Result it completely disappeared just leaving a small stain on the fire bricks. Maybe there was some mileage in this, so time for a full test.

We unearthed all the casting boxes, crucibles, leather aprons, face masks, gaiters and other other paraphernalia, made a sand mould with petrobond (oil bound) sand with suitable runners and risers and then fired up the furnace. All very exciting stuff as we don't get to do this sort of thing very often in school these days.

After a bit of a wait we degassed the molten aluminium and the moment of truth had arrived... Time to pour it into the mould! Everything went smoothly, we now only had to wait for the aluminium to solidify and cool down... The excitement was mounting! And the smell of scorched sand was pervading the whole department much to the disgust of my colleagues.

But now the time had come to break open the mould... Bated breath as the sand was crumbled out of the casting box..... And..... FAILURE!!!.... It hadn't worked! The 3D printed PLA object was only slightly melted on one side, surely it couldn't have resisted that sort of heat, but it had.

So, back to the drawing board and a bit more thinking is needed... I'm convinced that it should work but we just have to find out exactly how to do it.

On the other hand, perhaps I shouldn't keep listening to my students.

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:47:57 -0800 More student products improvement with 3D printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/more-student-products-improvement-with-3d-pri http://rapman-education.posterous.com/more-student-products-improvement-with-3d-pri

In an earlier post I showed how a student designed an improved pencil sharpener (the green one in the photo gallery). He wasn't entirely satisfied. After doing some further consumer research he realised that although his new design was really quite good the market was more limited for a desktop device... So after re writing his specification to match his research he came up with this device... It's a first generation design and will obviously improve in subsequent iterations but I must admit I really like the elegance of this solution.. Fold out handles for a better grip, uses a standard pencil sharpener for its mechanism and just the sort of quirky design that appeals to youngsters.

I'll hopefully let you know more as this progresses... Unless his design becomes a marketable product !

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:29 -0800 Students improve products with 3D printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/students-improve-products-with-3d-printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/students-improve-products-with-3d-printing

If you browse back through this blog to an entry I made on 2nd February "improving products with 3D printing" I showcased some of the work done by my students in designing and 3D printing prototypes of improved products.... Here is just a taster of how a simple design has evolved with the help of the relatively rapid modelling that can be done with 3D printing.... Our 3D Systems Bits from Bytes machines are really being put through their paces!

In the photo galley in this post you can see how this model has changed... The original red model was intended to be used with the opener pointing towards the finger tips... Through testing the student has decided to reverse this. The finger rings have now been angled to be a little more ergonomic and the design is now approaching something that would be viable. ... Forgot to say that this design is intended for domestic and commercial use... It is now the sort of design that a barman could "wear" throughout a shift behind the bar and have a bottle opener "to hand" and ready for instant use whenever there is a need to open a bottle.... Just writing about this is making me drool... I could crack open a cool bottle right now!

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:28:32 -0800 More product improvements with 3D printing by students http://rapman-education.posterous.com/more-product-improvements-with-3d-printing-by http://rapman-education.posterous.com/more-product-improvements-with-3d-printing-by

 Following my previous blog post I couldn't miss posting about this product model by one of my students.

As you can see from the photos this student has tackled a project to design an improved pencil sharpener.

This is intended to be a non functional model exploring the ergonomics of the design and some aspects of the functionality such as the hinged waste bin and aesthetics.

A very promising project... I will hopefully post some more as it develops, so keep checking back here!

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:03:00 -0800 Improving products with 3D printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/improving-products-with-3d-printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/improving-products-with-3d-printing

 Our AS Level students at Clevedon School are doing some fantastic coursework projects. Their main project is to design and model an improved version of an existing product... Including some innovative ideas.

As you can see in the photo some of the students have chosen to design improved kitchen products including bottle openers and a pizza cutter. These products need to be ergonomic (designed to fit the human body) and made to a standard where they can be tested.

The products shown in the photo are not their final finished designs but have been made to do some initial testing to check the ergonomics, that the sizes are suitable and most importantly that they will work. To help the students with this they decided to make their prototypes by designing their products using Creo Elements/pro 3D design software and then 3D printing them on our RapMan and BfB3000 printers.

I can't wait to see what their final designs look like!

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:44:36 -0800 Bespoke USB sticks http://rapman-education.posterous.com/bespoke-usb-sticks http://rapman-education.posterous.com/bespoke-usb-sticks

 The students in my year 9 CAD/CAM integrated project groups have all come together with different amounts of experience, some having done work with the 3D program Creo/elements pro and others having done none at all. And very few have experience of actually designing for 3D printing. So we did a fairly quick introductory project to help get everyone to the same skills level.

This introductory project was to design and 3D print a custom case for a USB stick. As you can see from the photos there are some very interesting designs. Hopefully some more photos will be posted when the students have printed their design.... And then on to the main project!

 I have posted some Free to download teaching and learning resources for this project on the Bits from Bytes wiki http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Bespoke_USB_Stick

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:34:55 -0800 Iterative designing for 3D printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/iterative-designing-for-3d-printing http://rapman-education.posterous.com/iterative-designing-for-3d-printing

 One of my GCSE students (15 years old) decided that for his final project he would design a fitting to hold an iPhone on his bike handlebars. I think he must have seen one produced by another student last year and featured in an earlier post on my blog!

So he went away and started to produce some ideas using Google Sketchup I would have much preferred him to have used a proper CAD program for the reasons you will probably see later. Anyway, he finished his design, exported it to .stl format, created the gcode with BfB Axon and printed the first parts. As you can see they were far too big and chunky... This was a real surprise to him as in Sketchup the design looked ok. So, back to the drawing board! ... I wonder if he would have realised his mistakes if he had used Creo Elements/pro or Autodesk Inventor?

His next designs look far more promising, the size is better and somehow it all fits together... So what will the next version look like? ... Well, this is where the power of 3D printing lies. The simplicity, cost effectiveness and relative speed allowed this student to start down the road of an iterative design process. For this him it would have been almost impossible for him to test and visualise what his product would turn out like without printing his first draft design. The jump he made in improving his design would probably not have been possible if he had to have invested heavily in skill acquisition, time and materials for CNC milling. 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1324605/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emrVdsQknst Dave White rapman-education Dave White