Three-D Printing

by Hannah Pj

From printing small insignificant items to full-sized automobiles, a relatively new, technological advancement will change the way people look at printers forever. At Science City, Accelerated School students recently observed a new dimension of printing... not with just a normal printer, but a printer that can print  3-dimensional objects!

Guided by an instructor at Science City, everyone in the class designed their own 3-D figures and watched them magically come to life. Using MacIntosh computers, students used an online program to design objects such as signs,  symbols, dogtags, or keychain fobs. Objects needed to be small so that there would be enough time for each individual object to actually print.  Most of the projects took 15-20 minutes to print.

The 3-D printers utilized melted plastic to recreate  students’ designs that had been made on the computers. Students were fascinated to see their designs appear as layers of plastic were applied by the many moving parts.  They also learned that not all 3D printers function perfectly, as some malfunctioned and did not print projects correctly.

Three-D printers vary in cost, from about $1,200 for low-end models to thousands of dollars. The models at Union Station were in the low range, but were impressive to watch.  Students were entertained by the experience.  Kimberlyn V. said, “Personalizing my name on the keychain and watching it print was my favorite part of the field trip.”

Another student, Josh J. commented, “ Since we got to design what we wanted, I printed a tag for my keychain that refers to an old video game that I like to play.”