Today, we welcomed Year 10 pupils from St Annes RC Voluntary Academy in Stockport, continuing our long-running programme to introduce a new generation to the wonders of CAD modelling and additive manufacturing.
They started off the session with a brief introduction to the tools of additive manufacturing and then our student ambassadors showed them the various 3D printing technologies, encouraging a hands-on approach to pick up and interact with some example 3D printed artifacts in PrintCity. We always tell people that it isn’t a museum and to pick things up to see how they’ve been made, how light they are and to see how parts can be made with additive manufacturing that cannot be made in any other way. It was interesting to see the students being somewhat overwhelmed with the potential 3D-printing has.
Later on, they spent a large chunk of the day working on 2D and 3D modelling exercises in Autodesk Fusion 360, starting right from the basics and finishing off with personalised drinks bottles of their own. This was to demonstrate the ‘production line of one’ and how, with 3D printing, products can be personalised and bespoke, rather than made in the thousands.
Coming to the end, the students got super excited for the final Design Slam. This is a timed competition against the clock and against each other to win some Amazon Gift Vouchers.
The design journey of each of the student was unique and it was quite exciting to see the multitude of creative ideas they brought to life.
Written by student ambassadors: Maria Aguilar-Mendoza, Johar Hussain, Sivapriya Varma and Tim Weston