Have you ever wanted to create a diorama for biology class or a building model for your architecture club on campus? Well fear not, the University of Oregon’s Science Library has just what you need, and it’s a called a 3D Printer.
The machine works by taking drawings made on a computer and prints them out in a 3D design with plastic. The printer, which the library received around Thanksgiving of 2013, uses a plastic called polylactic acid that comes in multiple colors and can cool almost instantly, explained Dean Walton, a UO science librarian.
“It’s not really odd for a library to have something like this,” said Walton.
The around $2,000 makerbot replicator 2 is one of the only 3D Printers on campus that is free to use by anyone UO student. All you have to do is create a design of an object with a CAD (Computer-aided design) program and the Science Library will print it out on their 3D Printer, according to Walton.
There are three primary groups of students that use the printer, explained Walton. Product designers who wish to make a model of their product, architecture students who wish to make a replica of the building they’re drawing and science students who want to make lab equipment and models for experiments.
A class on 3D Printers was introduced to the university last term, according to the UO’s Library website. Titled LIB 399 Make!—Research and 3-D Object, the class created and taught by Walton helped 20 students learn how to create designs for the printer and produce objects.
GTF Alex Bies took the class last term. He described how it was easy to learn how to use the printer and even that one of his classmates printed one of the ships from Star Wars. Bies hopes to incorporate what he learned in class with his research on cognitive Neuroscience.
“It was geared to be something you could learn whether you’re an undergraduate who had never heard of a 3D Printer to a graduate who had wrote about them in magazines from wired,” said Bies.
The first object printed off on the printer was a replica of a sabretooth salmon. It was used to help build the model of the prehistoric animal that is currently on display at the UO’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, according to OPB.
A summer camp sponsored by Walton utilized 3D Printers to create nose-cones for model rockets last August. The weeklong “Fundamentals of Rocketry” program held at Lane County’s only children’s museum, The Science Factory, was funded by the UO’s STEMCORE program, according to UO’s website.
Students from ages 9-11 learned about rockets in addition to 3D Printers and the machine’s potential future.
“The future (of 3D Printers) is very interesting. They say it’s another industrial revolution,” said Shashi Jain, Chief Technologist at Matter Compilers, a Portland based 3D Printer seller.
Jain goes on to describe how 3D Printers are catching in the consumer market on and that now is a really interesting time for the industry. Dental hardware, hearing aids, and practical kitchen goods are just a few of the things that are being made with 3D Printers.
The technology is getting to a point where it can print off bigger and better things, said Walton. It’s possible that in the future 3D Printers can use more than just plastic and create more complex products.
“If I were to print a car, it’s a giant Barbie car. However, if I can print with multiple materials, if I can print with rubber, metal, and plastic, then I’m printing something which isn’t just a model but a functioning object,” said Walton
So, if you want to create an action figure or small cup on campus, then the Science Library’s 3D Printer is just what you need.
Follow Eric Schucht on Twitter @EricSchucht