3-D Innovation in LBCC's Drafting and Engineering Graphics Technology Department

            Eleven years ago the Drafting and Engineering Graphics Technology Department at LBCC gained an invaluable asset in the form of 3-D printing. Perry Carmichael, head of the department, said, “The Albany campus was one of the first schools to have this technology, even before OSU and Washington State University.” 
            This technique, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. Today, the department can boast a count of four 3-D devices including a 3-D rapid prototyping printer and 3-D handheld “doodler” pens. The departments LBCC hosted web site suggests (loosely) viewing this process “as a hot glue gun that is computer controlled.”

Generally used by second year and above students; the 3-D printer is used to simulate a manufacturing and production experience within the classroom. This concept of learning design through production is the purpose of these devices on campus.  
        These printers have the potential to allow students and faculty the freedom to utilize ideas and concepts that would previously have been extremely hampered within the confines of school if not impossible altogether. 
        Students use the 3-D printer to make anything from hanging decorations, ceramics, and home decor to serviceable tools, pinewood derby cars and remote-controlled robots. 
       The printer takes a Computer-aided design (CAD) file known as a stereolithography (STL) of a 3-D solid model and will print the model, both interior and exterior, as a solid object. The process involves adding layer upon layer of varying material to make a finished product. Typical print times are a couple hours.

            Until recently, 3-D printing was limited to large companies that could afford the industrial machines. Daimler AG, Honda Motor Co., Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. all have used 3-D printers to fashion prototypes and make parts that go into final products.

            Created in 1984 by Chuck Hull of 3-D Systems Corporation, the technology would only begin to see real market growth near the start of the 21st century and took until the early 2010s for this modern marvel to become widely available commercially. As their popularity, usage, and sales increased their cost began dropping to a more affordable mass consumer level. According to Wohlers Associates, a consultancy, the market for 3-D printers and services estimate from 2007 through 2012 show a staggering 35,000 percent increase in sales with a value of $2.2 billion worldwide in the surveys final year.

            The advantage to these machines for innovation and advancement in engineering, drafting, robotics and medicine as well as many others is prolific. 
        LBCC's ROV (remotely operated vehicles) Club and their advisor Greg Mulder (LBCC’s physics department chair) have recently made good on these claims. The club took third globally this past year in a 400-team competition at Johnson Space Center in Texas. Facing such international competition as Russia and Japan as well as our own competitors at home, which included major contenders such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was no easy task. 
        Coquille Rex, a member of the ROV Club who was involved with the competition, said, “It was the detail work and intricacies we gained from having the 3-D printers that truly set us ahead. What we could do with the printers for the ROV competition was truly awesome.”

The members enjoys competing with their  club built and designed vehicles. Photo courtesy of ROV Club.

            Any and all of LBCC’s aspiring engineers, inventors, design artists and ROV Club members can enjoy the advantages of 3-D printing on campus. Students have an ever-mounting access to new software and applications concerning 3-D print technology.

At a glance

If you would like to learn more about this technology or want to join classes, contact Perry Carmichael. 
Phone: 541-917-4774 
Email: perry.carmichael@linnbenton.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LBCC.DEG.

You can also contact the ROV Club at Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Linn-Benton-Community-College-ROV-Team
Advisor: Greg Mulder 
Phone: 541-917-4744
Email: mulderg@linnbenton.edu