Abstract Outline Rough Draft

3D printers seem like they are straight out of the future, yet we can use them in day to day life today. From printing biological material, to metal, to plastic and even food, there is more that these machines can do than there is that they cant. They also have the added benefit of being excellent educational tools. This research, and thus the thesis question, is intended to figure out if a 3D printer would make a large enough impact within the Architectural and Engineering Technology program to make it worth it. And not only that, but, if it is worth it, how would we use it?  

We take a certain amount of design classes where the printer may be used by students, if it fits within the curriculum. Kirton, E. F., and Lavoie, S. D. wrote  "Utilizing Rapid Prototyping for Architectural Modeling." Engineering Design Graphics Journal, 70(1), (2009), and discussed how they used a 3D printer within the design process. They ran into some troubles in the category of scaling. When scaling the model down far enough so that it is able to be printed, the width of the glass panes had become too small for the printer to handle, and thus had to be scaled up by a factor of 10. This was done with a printer that had a printing resolution of 0.01”, or about 0.25 millimeters. As the technology improves, so shall the printing resolution, and thus the quality that the models can be created at also will improve. It then becomes a question of: when is the right time to buy a 3D printer? We obviously want to get one that will best represent the models we need to make.

 But then there are also the math classes, the physics and statics classes, the materials and applications classes and all the other technical classes we take. How would it fit into those classes? Currently this semester we are taking a BIM (building information modeling) class, a method of design that is being shifted to from using CAD. An article by Arayici, Y., Coates, P., Koskela, L., Kagioglou, M., Usher, C., & O'Reilly, K., titled "BIM adoption and implementation for architectural practices." Structural Survey, 29(1) on pages 7-25, goes over how the industry is changing to incorporate BIM. This is a good thing for the 3D printing industry, because of how easy BIM ties in with the rapid prototyping available through 3D printing. It also might make it easier to bring 3D printers into our curriculum this way.

            In statics, we do question after question after example after example of beams, trusses, or other various systems that are set up in static equilibrium. It is occasionally hard to grasp just how the forces are acting on the system, or how it is put together, especially when we venture into the realm of 3D questions. What better way to explain the problem, than to print it in 3D? We would then be able to accurately portray the forces acting on the system. And if we had a variety of materials to print with, we could compare parts made from different materials and how they would react to the forces. The same goes for physics. Our teacher already brings in many different examples, which are generally entertaining and educational. Some of the topics we cover that we don’t have those physical examples for; we could, just by printing them.

            Lighting is another thing that is difficult to properly simulate in a virtual environment. If you can rapidly prototype part of your design, you can then experience quite easily how the light will affect the surroundings.

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 printing with Stirling silver does not seem like something we would want in our program.

When looking at the cost of printers, and different printer models, one must have a base understanding of the printers themselves. There are 3 main ways of printing: Extrusion Deposition, which uses a spool of material which is then heated and extruded through a nozzle, Granular Material Binding, which has a large basin of powdered material which is then melted or bound together to form the model, or Photo polymerization, which has a vat of liquid polymer that is exposed to a digital light processing projector, which hardens select areas of the polymer to create the model. There are of course many different printers that use one of these three methods. Part of the goal of this research is to then attempt to pick one of these printers. We would obviously look for the highest quality for the cheapest value. We might select the 3D printer RepRap, which uses extrusion deposition, and sells for fairly cheap due to the fact that it can print more of its own parts out – it goes for around $500 to $800, and has a decently precise printing capability. Or then there is the MakerBot replicator 2, with a cost of over $2000, and yet featuring an incredibly precise printing resolution. Yet another good option is the 3DSystems ZPrinter 850, generally used for industrial environments, and also academic environments. It would be about the size of our current plotter, and have a fast printing speed with an excellent resolution.

In the end, it comes down to, can we use a printer? Do we want a printer? And is it relatively affordable? Research done through interviewing companies that have purchased a printer, research done through online investigating, and research done by talking to the students taking and planning to take the ARET program will ultimately answer these questions.