If you’re familiar with Discovery Channels’, How’s It Made, this would undoubtedly be a thrill.
The D-Lab Maker Fabrication series took place on the 6th of April 2022, and was led by Mr.
Nicholas Tali. Curious minds gathered at the Ashesi University Fabrication lab to uncover the mystery behind 3D Printing and engraving. 3D printing traces back to the eighties when Japanese designer Hideo Kodama first experimented with the technique of printing in layers. 3D Printing eventually gained mainstream momentum in the early 2010’s, when machines became available for commercial purchase. Popular uses of 3D printing are in the polymer manufacturing industry for portable fashion items, accessories, and computing components. It’s also used to create the building blocks for miniature machines or robotic parts.
Although it was a busy school afternoon, the design lab still hosted a total of eighteen enthusiastic students. The event served as a launchpad for the main fabrication projects. Mr. Nicholas Tali revealed that the students would make 3D models of a cat and a dog, earning a lot of excitement from the students.
The students were first shown videos of the various dog and cat models on you tube for them to get a clear picture of how the final product looks like before being taken through each part of the models.
The students were then taken through some of the parts in the model, for example parts to make up the torso, the chest, legs and also tutorials on how to go about modelling and printing the various parts of the dog and cat model.
Some of the key information they had not note were:
Each slice should take a maximum of 4-5 hours
The design files to be printed should be saved with the extension .stl
They also had some printing considerations to work on such as :
Layer height
Hollow vs filled
Support and adhesions
Position of the file on the board
Mr. Nicholas, then proceeded to the printing room where he took the students through the process of laser cutting. He gave gave a brief overview on some parts of the machine and some of their functions:
Laser cutter: Guides a 150W laser beam to cut materials
Compressor: Cleans the head of the laser to keep it clean during the process of cutting
Refrigerator: Produces and passes refrigerated water through the laser cutter for cooling purposes
Air purifier: Extracts fumes from the laser cutter
After being taught how to use prototyping software like xyz, students were placed into supervised groups to further develop their ideas. They were divided into two teams, namely Team Dog and Team Cat. As you’ve probably guessed, participants were tasked with creating a digital template and physical prototype of a robotic dog or cat!
The students were then left to discuss the way forward in their groups and were later told that they would be placed in the same Whats app group to allow for easier communication as both group strive to come up with good models. Mr. Nicholas, ended the session leaving his best regards for the team that would come up with the best model. The session ended at 5pm with students enjoying some of the snacks that were available as they all headed out.
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