I've started with "Should there be 3D printers included in the curriculum of the ARET program"
But there are so many variables to go with this. Are they worth it? 3D printers can get pretty expensive for some, with high quality, or cheap for other with not as high quality. There are many mid range printers as well, with a level of quality that works just fine for our uses.
But the cost is not just the cost of the printer, there is also material and maintenance. From looking around at different companies, the average price of the material is about $45 - $80 per kilogram of that material (for printers that use extrusion deposition). Some companies that print the model for you quote prices in m³, with prices like $2.50/m³ for plastic up to $20.00/m³ for stirling silver. But I doubt we'll be printing with stirling silver.
It also depends on how the printer works. There is a great blog post talking about the 'real' cost of 3D printing, explaining everything you must take into account that is not generally explained to you. There is the waste material, support material (the stuff printed to hold the model together while the rest is printed), and even glue to stick the different parts of your model together. Here is the blog post, I believe it is worth a read: http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/4280/The-Real-Cost-of-Materials.aspx
Yet the models them selves are not all that expensive. This model here is at a scale that I believe we would print our models to, if we had the chance.
The link to the model is here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33310
If you don't want to check the link, the model only weighs 65 grams, and appears to maybe 15-20 centimeters across. If we think maybe of how much material went towards support and waste, I imagine the cost of the model to be around 100 to 150 grams. At $50 per kilogram, that model costs about $5.00 to $7.50. And this is just from one type of printer, there are more efficient models coming out each day.
If the ARET program paid for the printer, I feel like we students could pay for our models, seeing as that price is still fairly cheap depending on the printer.
Some other questions I need to think about is the durability of different 3D printers, and how long they last. What does the maintenance cost with them? How often do you have to replace parts? At least with the RepRap if a part is going, you can print out a replacement (provided the printer still works).
And then finally, how would we use the printers in our program? What classes would we use them in? I personally can see uses in almost every class, from statics (imagine just printing out some of the 3D statics questions and actually properly seeing what was going on) to any of our building modeling classes, where we could print the models of our houses. For the building design classes, are the models worth it? Its certainly something cool to keep, and if it prints so that you can take it apart, it shows your model fantastically. It might even be something to show to a future employer to help you stand out.
Maybe with 3D printing the models, we can gain more interest for the program and get more clients for projects, or get more people applying to join the program?
Anyways, those are my thoughts on the topic. I'll probably be researching mostly into how other Universities or classrooms have integrated their 3D printer into their curriculum, all the while thinking of these questions.
