Additive Manufacturing holds great promise to improve lives, but access to 3D Printing technologies and training can be almost impossible in the world’s poorest communities. An engineer’s students group from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is trying to change that.
For a senior multidisciplinary design course, six electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering students created a versatile 3D printer power system that can seamlessly switch between power sources. Watch the video to know 3D Printing Center at RIT:
The group of students has collaborated remotely with students at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali, Colombia, who were tasked with simultaneously developing a way to use recycled plastic bottles as reinforcement in the Additive Manufacturing filament. The purpose of the project is to have a 3D printer, which requires a continuous electricity flow to work, operating reliably in an environment where the electricity supply is not guaranteed, such as in Cali.
The students attached solar panels to the printer to make sure there is uninterrupted power during the device’s functioning.
“The system the students developed here at RIT is a system that would automatically sense when solar power is available [or]grid power is available, and depending on which of those two sources are available would charge a battery.”
Marcos Esterman, Associate Professor in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering
The 3D printer can create objects such as jewelry and plastic toys.The students chose Cali because it is a poor area where gang violence is prevalent among young people. Giving these students the chance to develop 3d printing skills in their own community may help them to make better options in their future than falling into gang activity. Additive Manufacturing is changing lives in developing countries around the world. New Story, a housing charity in California, and construction technology company ICON are collaborating to design a 3D printer for building homes in regions of the world like El Salvador and Haiti that lack the economic resources to build housing for poor residents. And technology company Not Impossible established Additive Manufacturing facility to create prosthetics in war-torn Sudan to help victims of the violence in that region.
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Hannah Watkin All3DP Jun 21, 2018 Solar Powered Printing Students Develop 3D Printer Power System for Impoverished Colombian Communities https://all3dp.com/students-develop-3d-printing-system-powered-solar-young-people-colombia/ visited on Jun 21, 2018;
Matthew Greenwood engineering.com Jun 21, 2018, Solar-Powered 3D Printing System Gives Colombians Access to Additive Manufacturing https://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/17066/Solar-Powered-3D-Printing-System-Gives-Poor-Colombians-Access-to-AM.aspx visited on Jun 21, 2018;
Rochester Institute of Technology logo, Brand EPS https://www.brandeps.com/logo/R/Rochester-Institute-of-Technology-01 visited on Jun 21, 2018;
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Innovation Trail Oct 26, 2016, New 3D Printing Center Opens at Rochester Institute of Technology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDTc22C3KzY visited on Jun 21, 2018;
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