3D Printing is designed for students of ages 18+. The course is based on the Project Learning method. An Ultimaker 2+ is available for 3d printing, the Cura software is used to prepare the printing student's creations and the Open Source Blender software for 3d design.
The purpose of the course is to learn basic concepts of designing and printing of 3D models.
Students will acquire knowledges including:
- the parts and the way that 3d printers function
- the materials used in 3d printing
- the areas of human activities in which 3d printing is used
- use of 3d applications and their tools, to design models for 3d printing including tinkercad and blender.
Students will also acquire skills like
- operate a 3d printer
- set the proper properties to the printing software, in order to have a reliable print out
- to prepare their 3d models for 3d printing
- to recognize and to use productively the basic tools of a 3d design application.
At the end of the course students must be able to
- name and describe the basic parts of a 3d printer and the basic printing materials and 3d printing techniques
describe the basic services of a 3d printing software
describe the capabilities of a 3d modeling system
- name and describe the common functions of a 3d design software
- model and print their own creations
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), refers to processes used to create a three-dimensional object in which material is joined or solidified under computer control to create an object, with material being added together (such as liquid molecules or powder grains being fused together). Objects can be of almost any shape or geometry and typically are produced using digital model data from a 3D model or another electronic data source such as an Additive Manufacturing File (AMF) file (usually in sequential layers). Stereolithography (STL) is one of the most common file types that is used for 3D Printing. Thus, unlike material removed from a stock in the conventional machining process, 3D printing or AM builds a three-dimensional object from computer-aided design (CAD) model or AMF file, usually by successively adding material layer by layer.
The term "3D printing" originally referred to a process that deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by layer. More recently, the term is being used in popular vernacular to encompass a wider variety of additive manufacturing techniques. United States and global technical standards use the official term additive manufacturing for this broader sense.
Have a look at a 3d printing example: