A new wave of 3-D printers at The Garage is making it easier than ever for resident student entrepreneurial groups to prototype their ideas. Instead of trying to raise money to attempt a costly die casting or injection molding (which can cost thousands of dollars), students can now go from idea to physical product in less than 48 hours with little cost.
3-D printers come in two basic types – additive and subtractive. Additive printers create an object by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. Subtractive printers cut or engrave different kinds of material like leather, fabric, acrylic, plywood, cardboard and even metal as opposed to adding layers of plastic. Both types of printers use basic computer aided design (CAD) software that allow the user to verify the design of their object before it is printed – which is helpful when a detailed design can take over 24 hours to print.
Additive 3-D printers at The Garage utilize two distinct methods of manufacturing. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) heats plastic filament and extrudes it to create each layer.
Stereolithography (SLA) uses a focused ultraviolet laser to cure each layer.
Subtractive 3-D printers begin with a raw piece of wood, soft metal, or plastic and make repetitive cuts at sequential depths to create the desired object.
A number of Garage-sponsored student groups are using the 3-D printers to advance their projects. McCormick junior Marc Gyongyosi, CEO of IFM Technologies, uses the 3-D printers to fabricate parts needed for his custom drones. His IFMs, or Intelligent Flying Machines, are able to fly without the need for external systems such as GPS. This enables them to operate at high levels of autonomy in indoor environments.
“The Garage's 3-D printers have been instrumental in accelerating our development process. Through the use of specialized materials in the new SLA (Stereolithography) devices we have been able to take our proprietary frame design to a whole new level. Optimizing not only form and weight, but also stiffness and material properties for different parts of our robot has enabled us to build a new platform with revolutionary performance,” says Gyongyosi of the benefit facilitated by access to these machines.
Another group led by Master of Science in Robotics student Jackie Wu, 89 Robotics, has also been using the 3-D printers available in The Garage to prototype their new product called the Rook, a remote-controlled surveillance drone. Unlike current drone models which require the operator to be within a specified distance from the machine, the Rook can be controlled from anywhere in the world by connecting to it via Wi-Fi. The user then can monitor the camera's video feed in real time on any mobile device.
Interested in trying your hand at 3-D printing? Then become a member of The Garage by filling in an application. Applications are accepted at the beginning of the quarter. Exact dates and links will be announced in The Garage’s newsletter, available here: http://thegarage.nu/newsletter.
If you reside in the Chicago area, there are two 3-D printing facilities open to the public. Learn more about them here: