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An Important Association in 3D Printing to Creative Student, Formlabs Partners met Royal College of Art

Debamoy Ghosh

The stories which are my personal favorite, that are included in the 3D printing space are the ones that focus on mainly showcasing the technology to the students all over the world. These include our future manufacturers, leaders, engineers and creators. All of them will be there for us even when we would become old, as they are the people who will enhance the technology so that that we can live a better lifestyle and raise the standards of our living. Thus, from this it has been concluded by me and several researchers as well that here 3D printing has a vital role to play.

3D Printing to Creative Student
Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Here thus arises the question that why not to provide the students with all the essential tools that are needed to succeed in their future environment?

Formlabs, the creator of the Form 1+3D printer gets all this as done by the Royal College of Art in London. These two parties recently came into collaboration so as to host a word class research design course that deals with the future scope of desktop manufacturing. The course deals with how the process of the 3D printing can direct the industrial design landscape to head into the future.

3D Printing to Creative Student
Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Moreover, the students were also able to learn and experience 3D printing as a part of the Benchtop Factory program, as it was named.

The program was lead by the RCA Senior Tutor, James Tooze and also Formlabs designer, Yoav Reches. This program was done so as to let students to create products which could easily be 3D printed on a Form 1+3D printer.

The students came up with some fantastic and innovative concepts which will be displayed at Victoria and Albert Museum on March 28, 2015.

“We have created Formabs for engineers and designers to come up with new creative ideas” as explained by Max Lobovsky, Formlabs co-founder.

“We are trying to realize and understand the concept that how 3D printing will change the process of how we manufacture or make. Thus, it will be inspiring for all of us to work with these creative minded students who will explore new horizons on the Form1+”

3D Printing to Creative Student
Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Some of the great creations included:

  • The need to remember was removed by Thomas Leech, Joshua Browne, Axel Bluhme, and Yun-Pei hsiung. Called as the Formkey, this is basically a 3D printed object which is the main physical embodiment of the online passwords of your’s. it helps you to get access to your accounts using just a simple swipe of the ‘Formkey’ in front of the webcam.
  • Impression of the memory by Ivie Egonmwan, Cle Jentsch, Fiona O’Leary, and Tomomi Ogata- created aftermath on consideration for the Japanese earthquake. These students realized that the people come back to their ruined homes only in order to salvage whatever they can find. Howver, all these destroyed possessions often bring new meaning to their life and also develops new representation. The project thus, lead to the development of a new pattern making model, developed from these found the possession fragments.
  • The Factory by Vaclav Mlynar and Pinja Maria Piira- The Factory manufactures custom light fittings by the help of a analogue material manipulation process and the parametric 3D models that are then generated in the software modeling and then are ultimately 3D printed on demand.
  • The Growing Lab by Alex Loudon, Micaella Pedros, and Cristian Ferrara- this is a great experimental factory which prints the growing vessels that evolve with the plants.

All these creations show that when 3D printing is provided to the students, their ideas can be then into practical implication. This reality will change the world someday.

“The spread of ideas really impressed me,” as said by Dr. Sharon Baurley, Head of the Programme, Design Products at the RCA.

“The discussion was to challenge the students to view the future scope of the benchtop manufacturing scenarios, and also thinking about the social-cultural, technological as well as the political changes to the concept of the manufacturing.”

What you think Formlabs and RCA did to bring the 3D printing into the colleges for the students so as to understand the potential it provides with?

Discuss all this in the Formlabs/RCA collaboration forum thread on 3DPB.com.

3D Printing to Creative Student
Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Ref: 3dprint.com