Category Archives: 3D printing education

Interview with the Fuel3D Team

During the BETTshow in London I spoke with Andrew Smith and Stephen Atkinson from Fuel 3D. You can check out a Fuel 3D Scan here on their YouMagine account. Fuel 3D created a 3D scanner that is meant to be very easy to use in combination with a 3DPrinter. I was curious to find out if their scanner is suitable for students to use in schools, so I asked Andrew & Stephen of Fuel3D.

Andrew smith is the Business Development manager at Fuel3D. As a biology graduate who had worked for medical devices companies, he originally joined the company to work on the company’s medical scanning product. As the applications for the company’s products have grown, so have the areas (including education) that he is focusing on.

Stephen Atkinson is one of the Applications Engineers at Fuel3D. Whilst studying Product Design at University he gained experience working in various design consultancies, after graduating from University in summer 2014 Stephen started at Fuel3D. As an Application Engineer he deals with allot of the application development and customer technical support.

Left to right: Stephen Atkinson, Andrew Smith and Ronald Scheer

Please tell me something about your company

Fuel3D is a developer of advanced 3D scanning systems and solutions. Originally developed for the medical imaging sector, the Fuel3D technology has been adapted for the broader 3D market, with the goal of bringing the benefits of point-and-shoot 3D imaging to consumers, professionals and businesses. Since raising more than $300,000 and generating worldwide attention through its successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 the company has raised millions in private investment and signed retail and distribution partners across the world. In 2015, the company launched SCANIFY, a handheld 3D scanner that allows users to quickly and easily capture 3Dmodels of everyday objects for 3D printing or on-screen applications. Based on technology developed by Professor Ron Daniel, Lecturer in Engineering Science at Oxford University, Fuel3D is today led by Stuart Mead, CEO.

How and where did business start?

The Fuel3D story began in a lab at Oxford University, Professor Daniel and one of his doctoral students realized that they might be able to create something in the field of 3D printing. Some lateral thinking led them to the idea of using 3D photography to address the challenge of measuring and assessing the healing of chronic wounds. The wound measurement product was differentiated by its high quality output at a low price, which prompted the company to consider how to capitalise on this in other markets. In early 2013, the 3D printing market was taking off and it seemed an clear candidate for the company’s scanning technology. This led to the highly successful Kickstarter campaign that would ultimately drive the development and launch of SCANIFY.

What are your plans for the near future?

In the year ahead, Fuel3D will be exploring a number of avenues in the education sector, in particular focussing on informing educators about how SCANIFY’s ability to help create unique content can address the challenge of inspiring students to engage in 3D printing,. In addition, the company is looking at possible opportunities in content generation for computer game and visual effects courses, and in Blue Foam Modelling, which is used in many schools and colleges for prototyping projects.

Why is your tool a must have for every school & educator?

Fuel3D SCANIFY 3D Scanning system is aimed at bringing 3D scanning to a much wider audience. By providing hi resolution 3D scan data in a fraction of a second using a portable device that captures in a similar way to digital camera it is highly intuitive and allows almost everyone to capture data for use in 3D printing, and 3D design. Combine this with a price point that is below $1500 it is an excellent value educational tool for generating content for digital and design platforms.

Kideville at the BETTSHOW

Kideville is a project by Kidesign that lets kids build and 3D print a model city. To introduce a new version of their interactive and fun educational project, Dejan Mitrovic & Alberto Rizzoli we’re at the Bettshow the leading trade show for technology & education. Kideville are YouMagine community members and Ronald, who heads up YouMagine’s education efforts caught up with them to see how they were doing and how they wanted to help kids learn through 3D printing. Below Ronald’s report:

“In London at the Bettshow, I had a nice conversation with Dejan Mitrovic and Albetro Rizzoli about their company Kideville. Their aim is to help educators to teach Design & Technology in innovative ways, through CAD and 3D Printing. Their first “full curriculum kit” Kideville that was launched at BETT London, helps schools that buy 3D Printers but lack relevant projects and curriculums to integrate into their lessons. Dejan and Alberto started out in 2010 by running educational design workshops and that developed into a company that specialises in curriculum materials and games for 3D printing design. Kideville is a city design project for a whole classroom that takes the children through a full design process and gamifies the experience through various missions, tasks and exercises around building their island, populating it and creating all the necessary buildings for it. Getting students to use computers in more creative ways and connecting their own digital designs with the real world through 3D printing is Kideville’s goal. The design on Youmagine can be used with the game that Kideville launched at BETT in London.

The KideVille team with Ronald in the middle.

In the picture: on my left hand side: Dejan Mitrovic. On my right hand side: Alberto Rizzoli.

Dejan Mitrovic is a London-based design entrepreneur from Belgrade, Serbia.

Dejan also works as a tutor in design enterprise at the Royal College of Art, Ravensbourne College and Imperial College London. Alberto is the sales manager at Kidesign. In front of us: the boardgame with some 3D printed parts.

Team Rembrandts uses 3D printing for the FIRST Robotics Competition

Team Rembrandts

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a fun way for kids to compete while learning about robotics. The competitions are organized all over and we’re huge fans. We came into contact with Team Rembrandts and decided to support them by giving them filament and lending them 3D printers. Team Rembrandts is a team made up of students from the Fontys University, Summa College, TU/e and the Ubbo Emmius. The team is a part of the YouMagine community and has shared a Micro Robotics Arm & The Recycle Rush Game elements with us. They had a kick off event and below they describe it in their own words:

“Last weekend Team Rembrandts organized a Kick Off Event for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2015. The event was held in Lage Mierde, the Netherlands which is also the hometown of our Founder & Chief. During this event the second Dutch FRC team from Groningen were present, including some international mentors.

For this event five Ultimaker 2’s and an Ultimaker Original+ with dual extruder were made available for our use. During the weekend we used them to print robot parts and souvenirs. For example we printed gears for a different project of Team Rembrandts. We also printed a lot of Ultimaker robots and sheep to give away to children and other visitors of our Kick Off Event.

All of the Ultimaker 2’s were printing during the entire weekend, we printed parts for the robot, for private projects of our team members and for the visitors of our Event. We made a 3D scan of a couple of our team members with an Xbox Kinect camera and printed these with one of the Ultimaker 2 printers.

During the Kick Off Event we also learned about the new game of 2015 called “Recycle Rush”. We all watched the livestream of the game reveal. After that we started with brainstorming about our strategy. To aid us in explaining our strategies to each other, we printed the game’s components on 1/20 scale.

Ultimaker will also have some Ultimakers available to us during the build season of our robot for the game “Recycle Rush”. With these printers and our home build 3D printer we can print components and spare parts for our robot. Ultimaker also delivers the PLA filament in multiple colors for the printers they will have available for us.”

Interview with Roy Ombatti

Roy Ombatti is a Kenyan mechanical engineer social entrepreneur. His projects Happy Feet and DIY ShoeLab aim to use 3D Printing to combat a horrible disease. We leant Roy an Ultimaker 3D Printer and helped him a little with the files. We interviewed him so he could tell us more about his projects.

Roy Ombatti HappyFeet

Why did you start this project? Because I am an idealist who believes in making the world a better place…no matter how small my efforts are. And for me it starts with my country. And there are more than enough problems that my country is facing. I figure if each of the Kenyans (myself included) do something leveraging our skills and creativity to help the country then we wouldn’t be experiencing the problems we face. And if we had collaborative efforts with the more developed world then together we would certainly be able to overcome all of the world’s problems. So it starts with me…this is me trying to make a difference.

That answer is to the question on a greater scale. On a more specific not, the jigger problem is a result of poverty as the people who are affected cannot afford water for proper hygiene and neither can they afford shoes. Those who are affected have deformed feet and cannot fit into a normal shoe. So my solution is about providing affordable and custom-fitted shoes for the people who are affected by jiggers, as well as tackle the issue of poverty.

Why is this project important? We are all one people and the gap between the poor and the rich is strikingly painful. I always say that it is amazing that the world has developed such futuristic and high end technologies that can do such amazing things to make life better…but sadly I feel like our priorities as a people are misplaced and so we have failed as humanity. If we instead focus our efforts and redirect them towards helping each other then the world will truly be a better place. This project is important to me because I want to help out. Like I said, it starts with me but I cannot do it alone and so I am telling people about it and asking for help. I am not asking for money (yet) but I am asking for help!

More specifically, the shoes are important because they prevent reinfection (which is very prevalent) by the jiggers which cannot jump. An affordable source of shoes would be great as it could empower the community and the solution would be even more effective if the community are engaged as part of the solution. Ideally they should make the shoes themselves and hopefully even sell them.

Roy Ombatti Happy Feet

How many people does this affect? 265 reported deaths so far, 2.7 million registered infections (1.5 million being school children) and tens of thousands of school drop-outs daily. But these figures are grossly underestimated as there is a lot of stigma and shame around having the jigger infection that many people hide it and very few come out to be helped.

How does this disease affect people?: The jigger measures about 1mm in size and feeds on the flesh and blood of it’s warm-blooded host. The female jigger burrows itself inside the flesh where it lays eggs. The infestation results in pain, itchiness and discomfort as a result of the sores. People are rendered immobile and cannot go about their daily duties such as tilling their land and thus cannot earn their daily bread. Children cannot go to school. The stigma and shame prevents people from seeking help which only contributes to the spread of the infestation. Infestation results in pain, inability to walk and function properly and can ultimately lead to death if not attended to.

How do you hope to help? My proposed solution involves providing customized shoes from recycled plastic, using 3D printing. A scan of the deformed foot can be made in my ‘mobile shoe shop/lab’ after which a frame or skeleton of the shoe is printed. A normal shoe is then built around the frame using locally available materials. The community should ideally be the ones making the shoes themselves, including the recycling of plastic to make filament. The collection, sorting, cleaning and extruding of filament can be run by the community as well as the actual shoe construction. There would only be need for some technical support in terms of the shoe-frame design.

Introducing Joe Larson Community Blogger at YouMagine

Joe Larson’s recorder

Cymon aka Joe Larson is a helpful and inspiring YouMagine Community Member who makes lots of cool & useful designs ranging from a MetaChess board, peg board hangers, abstract games, a guy Fawkes ring & a musical instrument. Joe has won awards with his 3D modeling and has written tutorials and guides on Blender and the book 3D Printing Blueprints. I’m not sure how he has the time because he has a wife and 5 kids and a full time job writing software for a BioTech company. He also has a great blog called Joe’s 3D Workbench where he talks about his explorations in 3D printing. We asked him if he’d love for us to syndicate his work, so we publish the first paragraph or a few lines of a post on his blog and then link to him for further reading. He liked the idea of sharing his work with the YouMagine community. If there are other bloggers who would like to be featured in a similar way please email joris (at) youmagine.com.. so…without further ado…

“Modeling for 3D Printing Tip 4 – Separating a Multi Part-Mesh

What happens when you download a STL that’s actually many pieces, and you only want one or two of them?“

3D Printed Toys on YouMagine

Lots of people are making cute, fun, interactive 3D printed toys on YouMagine. Below I’ve selected a few that may inspire you or make for a fun 3D print.

This lovely colorful 3D printed dump truck is by Daniel Noree.

A colorful 3D printed toy dump truck.

Daniel shows us in a video just how well the print is done and just how close this thing is to store bought toys.

Marcus Wolschon made a GoPro rail mount so you can attach a GoPro to a Nerf gun and film your Nerf battles.

3D Printed GoPro Rail mount for Nerf guns

Bauermaker made this lovely low poly monster.

Low Poly Monsta

Be3Dprinters designed this functional and fun spinning top.

Spinning top by be3d.

Thinker Thing, a great free app you can use to remix and make stuff has lots of great monsters on YouMagine.

A lovely little dino monster.

You can also use 3D printing to repair old toys and make replacement parts for them as LinearChaos did, “My son got a metal SR-71 Blackbird Pull-Back toy from the Smithsonian Air and Space gift shop, … Tonight he stepped on it and broke off the front landing gear so I printed a direct replacement.”

SR 71 toy with a 3D printed replacement landing gear

Fareham College on 3D printing in Education

Ted Turnbull of Fareham College

YouMagine has a passion for education. To see what is exactly happening in 3D printing in education we sat down with Phil Savage and Ted Turnbull of Fareham College in Fareham, in the UK. The college has 4 Ultimaker 2’s & 6 Ultimaker Originals as well as a Replicator x2. The College is committed to getting students of all ages to use the printers. They want to increase the quality and learning of their technology lessons. Most schools that are looking into 3D printing are only getting one machine, for one class. Fareham’s 3D printing implementation is much more extensive. Actually it is one of the most extensive ones I’ve seen so far. I took the time to catch up with them at the TCT Show in order to see if they had any lessons that other schools looking at 3D printing could learn from.

Fareham College students assembling Ultimaker Originals

What does your 3D printing implementation look like?

“The plan with the 3D printing hub is initially geared towards enabling and enthusing teachers learn how to use 3D printers in their education practice.

Student course work and teaching materials are financed by the college, with personal and private work for staff and students produced at cost. Education Budgets in the UK have become increasingly stretched in recent years, so acquiring teaching materials aimed at kinaesthetic learning is financially challenging. The VAK (Visual, Audio, kinaesthetic) model suggests that some students learn by being told things, some learn by being shown something but others learn by experiential physical (kinaesthetic) learning. For this last group of students with the budgets the way they are it is hard to find the teaching tools to enable this. However, 3D printers coupled with a growing range of resources, such as YouMagine, give us the tools we need in to enable this learning experience.”

Kids making 3D printers!

Who operates the machines?

“Its a combination of options. Many students and teachers have received enrichment training or continuous professional development training covering using the 3D printers. In terms maintenance and optimization we have people trained to do that as well. The 3D printers are racked in the back of our largest classroom and someone is always present. When we move to a new facility in the next academic year the printers will be in HVAC controlled space.”

A student placing an axis rod on an Ultimaker one.

What have been the major issues you’ve encountered?

“The biggest issue for us has been funding – Ultimaker’s Create program has been an enabler in this regard. We also had to take into account a range of health and safety issues. In the UK we have to comply with legislation known as COSHH, and we’ve had to perform a detailed health and safety assessment process which took quite a long time. One particular area being issues around the properties of materials such as PLA and Nylon, which were hard to certify because of the comparative ‘newness’ of their use in education for 3d printing.”

What are some of the biggest advantages?

“We’ve an ongoing project with our Child Care and Early Years program for people who want to work in nurseries and in the wider child care sector. We are enabling them, in-house, to design and manufacture bespoke board games, toys and other learning resources, with a professional finish, to use with the context of child care provision. This can be achieved at a fraction of the cost and time, by utilizing 3d printing technology, when compared to almost any ‘traditional’ manufacturing process available in education.

Our sports science department is providing its students with 3D Printed knee joints to help them better visualise, understand and learn about skeletal mechanics. For chemistry, students can be provided with molecular modelling kits, at a tiny proportion of the cost of similar commercial alternatives. In total we have 16 ongoing projects at the college at the moment. Amongst other goals for the year we hope to gather a lot of usage data and evaluate how people use the facility. This information can then inform an iterative development process for our use of the technology just as the wider 3D printing industry does.”

Introducing the YouMagine team: Ronald Scheer

Hi, I am Ronald and I am in charge of YouMagine’s educational outreach and I am working with the team on developing our business models.

When did you start with 3D Printing? What drew you to it?

In the summer of 2010 I visited NOVU, the Dutch organization of inventors, product developers and researchers in Utrecht. In the Novu-building I went to ProtoSpace, (a fablab) to attended a workshop where participants could build an Ultimaker. This was the first time that I learned about 3D printing.

Involvement in 3D printing-projects
At the moment I am involved in the ‘3Ducation’ project in the Netherlands, where 24 schools (with children from 6 until 16) will be offered the first lessons in 3D design and 3D printing in the school year 2014-2015. Together with KWTG (a platform to promote Science & Technology at schools in Gelderland) we are preparing a new curriculum that teachers can use.

Involvement in Maker Community
Of course my Ultimaker2-printer is listed on 3Dhubs.com. Last month I visited the mobile fablab (owned by Frysklab) where I started to experiment with a full spectrum laser cutter. In September 2014 I will host some workshops concerning 3D design and 3D print at MiniMakerFaire Kerkrade in the Netherlands. These are examples of how I would like to engage the wider community of Makers, Hackers and Tinkerers.

What do you think the main advantages of 3D Printing are?
3D printing will have a profound influence on Distributed Digital Manufacturing, As a result there will be major changes in Logistics and Distribution as we know it today.

Were you involved in education before?
At the University of Twente I studied at the faculty of Educational Science and Technology. I finished my Masters thesis on Instrumentation Technology with a focus on ‘Open Computer Supported Collaborative Work (OCSCW). So my interest in Collaborative Work (from an educational perspective) has held my interest for a long time already….

You were an educator before, weren’t you?
Yes, in 2002 I graduated as a qualified teacher from Windesheim, University of Applied Sciences. After that I became an Economics teacher.

How will 3D printing help kids?
Children can intuitively work with 3D printers. Children do this much better than adults. I also fully support Youmagine’s initiative to embrace Enablingthefuture.org.

Why YouMagine?
To me, YouMagine represents my values and passion for open source, collaboration and sharing.

Other interest or hobbies
I am also interested in

the ‘Internet of Things’,
‘Open Data’ and
‘Quantified Self’.

Last but not least
I was born in 1971. I am married to Wendy van Krimpen. We have two children (2 boys: 2,5 years old and 4 months old) and we live in Vught, The Netherlands.

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