Teacher's PETs - 3D Printing

There is a clever riddle in the nerd world which goes: How can you send tools to astronauts in space in a matter of seconds? The answer is simple: send it through an email. Those who do not get the riddle simply means that they do not have any idea of how 3-D printing technology works. So, we have invited Mr Joseph Chan to shed some light on 3-D printing technology and, hopefully, by the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of this important advancement in technology.

Mr Chan’s PETs on: 3-D Printing

3-D Printing is an additive manufacturing in which the object is created by adding many thinly sliced layers together until the object is created.

Before learning how to make your own 3-D object, we should first learn how it works. Everything starts with a 3-D Model that you can create by yourself or download from an online 3-D library. With the help of some websites and applications, you may download 3-D objects and try to print it out using a 3-D printer. Yeggi and Flashprint are good examples.

Yeggi (https://www.yeggi.com/) is like an online library for 3-D objects. People all over the world share their 3-D design there. Some of the designs are free of charge and you may download the designs in "stl" file format, the format used in 3-D printing which stands for Standard Tessellation Language. It would be a good place for beginners of 3-D printing since they can broaden their horizon by taking reference with others' designs.

FlashPrint is an application that works together with 3-D printers “Adventurer 3” and “Creator Pro 2” that we use in our school. With this application, you can upload the "stl" file here and do the slicing to see the process of how it is constructed. At the same time, you need to understand the process of how it is done then consider whether we need to give a supporting part to the 3-D object.

In TINKERCAD, you can create your own project by combining different shapes and 3-D models together and use different colors. You can build up your design such as a phone holder, blocks, or even as a 3-D-model interior design of your home. With this important function, many companies have applied this technology to their design process in making prototypes, which can give fast and easy results at a cheaper cost.

Through 3-D printing, your spatial sense will improve because by building your own models, you can calculate the different dimensions of your objects. Also, your creativity will be boosted by others’ designs through collaborative work.

We hope that 3-D printing will inspire students to think and boost their creativity. In the coming years, expect more 3-D printing activities as it is one of our exciting school projects under STEM education. Students will be taught about how to use the 3-D printer, how to make their own designs and, most importantly, how to come up with useful designs that can solve real-life problems.

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