The Importance of Prototyping in Education

It’s very satisfying for me to design and develop products that help students learn. Whether it’s our ZPrinters, ZBuilder or another manufacturer’s prototyping system, having students work with rapid prototyping or 3D printing systems in the classroom is invaluable for them to gain a deeper understanding of the design process, to engage them so they are more enthusiastic and excited about what they’re learning and to help them gain a competitive advantage when seeking jobs or higher levels of education. After all, they will be using prototyping systems when they land jobs, so their education isn’t complete unless they work with those systems in school. I’m not just talking about technical universities…high schools, colleges, and vocational schools can and do benefit and, more importantly, benefit their students, by having prototyping systems in the classroom.

It’s incredibly gratifying to have a high school student approach me at a tradeshow (industry tradeshows often set aside a special day when they invite students studying design and engineering to talk to the different manufacturing companies and gather information for a class assignment) and proudly tell me that they use a ZPrinter and even show me examples of the models they’ve printed. They also can’t get enough of the sample 3D printed parts we hand out at the shows! I always ask them what they like best about the particular ZPrinter they have, and they tell me how “cool” it is to be able to print and hold their designs and they love to tell me how easy it is. Students who have a monochrome prototyping system can't believe that our multicolor models on display came out of the printer in full color and weren't painted...that always draws a "Wow! That's so cool!"

I firmly believe that prototyping in the class gives students confidence and a real sense of pride in their design capabilities.

Are you a student or teacher using prototyping or 3D printing in the classroom? How has it helped you to learn or teach design? Do you teach design without a prototyping system? If so, why haven’t you brought one into the classroom? As always, I look forward to your feedback.

http://www.zcorp.com

Reverse Engineering Aircraft with 3D Scanners

I’m going to change things up this week. It occurred to me that I haven’t written about 3D scanning yet, and every now and then I like to highlight some of the cool things people are doing with our technology. So this week, I combined both of those ideas.

You probably know that we have a line of handheld 3D laser scanners called ZScanners. One of those scanners, the ZScanner 700 PX, is able to scan very large objects, like airplanes, trains, trucks, buildings… you get the idea. It can do this because AICON photogrammetric software is built into the system.

M7 Aerospace, located in San Antonio, TX, USA, uses this scanner to capture precise, 3D data of entire planes, down to one-thousandth of an inch. Recently they scanned the entire surface of a Fairchild Metroliner in a resolution of 0.1 mm in three days. If you’re not familiar with aircraft, the Fairchild Metroliner is a 19-seat commuter-class, turbo prop aircraft with a 57-foot wingspan. Then the folks at M7 used the engineering data they captured with the scanner to reverse-engineer components that were originally designed during the 2D era (before 3D CAD was readily available) that needed retrofitting and repair.

M7 Aerospace also maintains and modifies legacy aircraft for the US military and foreign governments. They told us that older, yet still viable, aircraft sometimes perform modern roles and need to be modified with ballistic blankets, avionics upgrades and external sensors for missile defense systems. Those types of modifications can be expensive and take an incredibly long time without precise data, which is often missing because the original design documents are gone or because of variations in an aircraft due to factors like wear and tear. The scanner enables them to capture the precise engineering data they need to repair, modify or retrofit any plane they come across and keep a detailed design template for any plane of the same design.

I think this is a pretty interesting use of technology, even if you’re not an aircraft buff. What do you think? Were you aware of 3D scanning? Do you use it yourself and have an interesting story to share? I look forward to your feedback.

http://www.zcorp.com

Todd Grimm's June 2010 3D Printer Benchmark Report

Did you catch Todd Grimm's June 2010 3D Printer Benchmark Report? It is available as a free download at http://www.tagrimm.com/benchmark-2010/download_benchmark.html and is pretty interesting reading since it is an independent third party analysis. More about Todd Grimm and his company T.A. Grimm & Associates can be found here: http://www.tagrimm.com/company/index.html along with a number of other industry publications and tools, some free to download and some for purchase.

Like any report of this nature it isn't perfect. For example, the ZPrinter 310 was used for this analysis. If the newer models ZPrinter 150, ZPrinter 250 and ZPrinter 350 were considered instead, some of the results would likely be different. Overall, however, I agree with most of the conclusions in the report. I thought that instead of writing about my views on this paper I would bring it to your attention, give a brief overview, and ask for your opinions and experiences. Do they line up with the conclusions found by Grimm?

It focuses on the fastest growing segment in additive manufacturing – 3D Printing. So, comparisons where made between the six lowest cost printers available from five different manufacturers. As mentioned above, Z Corporations three newest products (ZPrinters 150/250/350) might have been considered if they had been available when the data was collected for the report.

As stated in the report, the purpose of the study was to determine just how fast, inexpensive, and easy to use 3D printers can be. To do so the following four areas where reviewed: Time, Cost, Quality, Operation, along with a number of subcategories. In the coming weeks I will give you some of my insights on cost, part quality and ease of use. But if you will allow me to give you an assignment, download the study, read it (the pictures are nice also), and let me know what you think. Do the conclusions ring true to your experience or assumptions? And, what part of the study is most important to you, cost, ease of use, other?

http://www.zcorp.com

ZPrinter Product Differences - Part II

Wow, it was just a few weeks ago I talked about the differences between several of the ZPrinter® products and just last week, we come out with two more! Of course I knew about the planned launch of these new products, the ZPrinter 150 and ZPrinter 250, but couldn’t talk about them at the time. I was quite happy to see several comments from that recent post asking for smaller and lower cost printers. In a nut shell these two new business and industry-quality ZPrinters combine many of the ease of use features that all of our recent printers have to a set of entry level offerings. The idea is to allow customers the option of paying only for what they need. If you are not interested in color and your parts will fit into a smaller build volume, the ZPrinter 150 might be the right choice. It is our lowest cost option. Why pay for more than you need to increase your productivity? For larger monochrome parts you might want to upgrade to the ZPrinter 350 with a slightly better resolution and larger build volume. The difference between the ZPrinter 250 and 450 can be viewed similarly. The ZPrinter 450 has a slightly larger build volume and significantly better color quality than the 250. So, if you primarily have a need for monochrome parts but require color from time to time the 250 is a good choice. For improved color capabilities upgrade to the ZPrinter 450. And of course, for best in class color, resolution, speed and build volume (which often leads to increased productivity) you should consider the ZPrinter 650.

Have you seen these two new products? What do you think? I look forward to your feedback.

http://www.zcorp.com

Are Open Source 3D Printers Really Suitable for Business?

I have to make a disclaimer before going further with this blog. Much of what I will write here is my own viewpoint from what I have read or from conversations I have had with others in the field of 3D printing. The topic is open source 3DP. There are a number of FDM (fused deposition modeling) printers available now in “kit” or open source form. This basically means that anyone can search the internet and find all of the components necessary to build their own FDM printer. Some have assembled the components and offer them for purchase as a kit that you assemble. At first I thought this would be a great way for technical schools to teach about using 3DP as a design tool while at the same time teaching about basic electronics, motion control, and programming. But then I started wondering how many times the kit could be disassemble and reassembled as new students enrolled in the appropriate course. Open source clearly is a way to buy into 3D printing technology at a relatively bargain price. Still, the cost is in the thousands of dollars and from what I can gather the printed part quality is not, at present, all that impressive. Layer thickness is about .012 of an inch which means distinct vertical lines throughout the part. Feature size limit is .080 of an inch which means that many small features simply cannot be printed.

In his blog last week, Al Dean of Develop3D had this to say:

“Many have been talking about the mass adoption of 3D printing for some time, but I’m not entirely convinced it’s going to turn into that world where everyone has a 3D printer in their home for a good long while, if at all. At present, there are dramatically lower cost options available, but these are aimed at the hobbiest looking to take on some new technology and give it a whirl. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but when you’re a professional organisation looking to bring your prototyping needs in house, you need something that’s lower maintenance, that produces more repeatable results and that you can get high-level support for when problems occur. Z Corp admitted that its not looking to dramatically erode the price levels rather continuing to lower things gradually as it can conduct cost economics and redesign work to bring the cost down in increments. After all, these products are aimed at professionals, as they most likely will for many years to come, and that means that a robust product that produces the results, is more desirable than chopping the margins out of the machines in a dramatic manner."

Who then is buying open source FDM printers? It isn’t clear to me that there is an industrial, true business application for open source 3DP. Do you agree? Let me know.

http://www.zcorp.com/

Announcing Two Additions to ZPrinter Product Line: ZPrinter 150 and ZPrinter 250

Today's guest blogger is John Kawola, Z Corporation CEO.

Today I’m happy to announce two additions to our award-winning ZPrinter product line: the ZPrinter 150 (entry-level monochrome) and the ZPrinter 250 (entry-level multicolor). These new affordable, business-class 3D printers make 3D printing available to every designer, engineer, architect and student.

ZPrinter 150                     ZPrinter 250

With a smaller footprint than the rest of our line, these new ZPrinters make great, industrial-quality parts while delivering Z Corp.’s trademark speed and affordability.

ZPrinter 150 monochrome 3D printed model

ZPrinter 250 multicolor 3D printed model (apply text, color, logos)

With our recently announced ZBuilder Ultra plastic rapid prototyping system and our comprehensive ZPrinter product line, Z Corp. uniquely provides a single source for both inkjet 3D printing and plastic DLP rapid prototyping solutions, which means we provide engineers and designers with solutions for all stages of the product design/development process – from early-stage concept modeling through form, fit and functional testing.

I invite you to learn more about the ZPrinter 150: http://www.zcorp.com/Products/3D-Printers/ZPrinter-150/spage.aspx and about the ZPrinter 250: http://www.zcorp.com/Products/3D-Printers/ZPrinter-250/spage.aspx.

ZPrinter Product Differences

When we make a decision to introduce a new product, it is important to us to increasingly add value to the customer. But value can be interpreted in many different ways. Sometimes more is less. For example, our entry level and education product is the ZPrinter® 310 Plus. This is a legacy product and does not offer many of the automated material handling capabilities of the ZPrinter 350, ZPrinter 450 and ZPrinter 650. So, what’s the difference?

The main feature categories for our printers are build volume, resolution, and color. There are others of course but let’s focus on these. The ZPrinter 310 Plus is a monochrome printer. It can print almost any color you want but just one color at a time. For instance you can put yellow binder in the printer and print yellow parts or you can mix yellow and cyan and print a greenish color part. By mixing yellow, cyan and magenta you can achieve almost any color of the rainbow.

The ZPrinter 450 introduced automated powder and binder handling. The build volume is the same as the ZPrinter 310 Plus (8”x10”x8”) but the loading of binders and powder is fully automated through the use of cartridges. When the printer calls for more binder the user simply plugs in a new cartridge and the printer is ready to go. Any powder that is not part of the model is automatically recycled back into the printer. The ZPrinter 450 is a full color printer. You can paste a jpg image onto your 3D data and it will be printed directly onto your model. This is any color, on demand, just like your color printer at home but in 3D. Resolution for the ZPrinter 310, ZPrinter 350 and ZPrinter 450 is 300 x 450 dpi. This measurement is similar to a home or office inkjet printer.

Automatic Powder Loading on ZPrinter 450

Model printed on ZPrinter 450

The 450 is a very powerful tool but if you need even better color, resolution and size, the ZPrinter 650 is a better choice. With a 10”x15”x8” build volume, 600 x 540 dpi, and a separate black color channel in addition to yellow, cyan and magenta, this printer offers the best color, resolution and print size, in addition to all of the automated material handling features offered in the ZPrinter 450 class.

Model printed on ZPrinter 650

This is just a quick snapshot of how our ZPrinters differ from one another. I hope it is helpful. As always I am curious about your thoughts. Which product characteristic is the most important to you? If we designed a product just for you would what build size would you want? Would it be a color printer or monochrome?

http://www.zcorp.com