The power of print

• Article 12 of 15
• EducationInvestor, August 2013

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A frequent criticism of the British education system is that it has never favoured the practical or the industrial, preferring instead the academic, artistic and theoretical. The engineering sector is responsible for 21% of the country's GDP or roughly £849bn each year. Yet only 6% of the university student population are engineers and engineering companies in the UK struggle to fill job vacancies, despite more than a million young people being out of work.

Perhaps one of the biggest problems engineering faces in schools is cost: it's hard to fire children's enthusiasm in a subject that's all about making things, if you can't actually make things in the lessons because they cost too much. 'Craft, design and technology' (CDT) lessons have enabled some schools to allow their pupils to develop small items, but the intricate and sophisticated have typically needed more advanced workshops and components than schools have been able to offer - and try as they might, virtual models and simulations on computers aren't things children can touch, feel and take home with them.

But a relatively new technology could offer engineering - and other subjects, including those in the arts - a boost for a relatively small price. Despite its name, 3D printing is a considerable leap forward from the ink or laser printing on paper we're all used to. It takes raw materials, usually a plastic powder or liquid but more expensive printers can deal with other materials including metal, and then moulds parts, often with micron-level precision, layering them to build up the final object. All the printer needs is a template for the design, which can be created with ordinary computer-aided design software or even downloaded from the Internet. The results can be even better than could be achieved without considerable training, with complex, articulated items able to be printed. And if the printer can't print an item itself, it can be used to create moulds from which the items can be made instead.

While the most headline-grabbing 3D model-templates created have ranged from guns and unmanned aerial vehicles (aka UAVs) through to models made from biological materials, 3D printing is finding uses in all manner of industries, including jewellery, architecture, film-making, dentistry, medicine and even in the army, which can use 3D printers to print out replacement parts for vehicles and weapons on the battlefield, for example.

So on the face of it, this should be a golden opportunity that schools should be jumping at, particularly now 3D printers are selling for just a few hundred pounds: enable pupils to experience the thrills of creation by getting them to create models on a computer, either from scratch or by modifying existing designs, then letting them print them out in just a few minutes.

Peter Cochrane, the former chief technology officer of BT, also highlights the potential for 3D printing in arts subjects: "Imagine if you take a photo of a famous statute with a camera. From there, you can create an identical replica with a 3D printer. You can replicate artefacts in art and history, and students everywhere can hold them."

The potential is so great, says Cochrane, schools in the US are "rolling out 3D printers quite rapidly". Yet in the UK, "there's nearly zero interest. Very little take up, except in perhaps one or two locations. In fact, there's a distinct possibility that 3D printing will be in most people's homes before it's in schools."

One of the few schools in the UK that is using 3D printers in earnest is ACS Egham International School in Surrey. According to the school's head of design and technology (DT), Bill Belcher, "We were looking at future technology a few years ago as we were investing in a new DT room. We went to an education show, saw that you could buy a basic 3D printer for £1,000 and so we bought one. It's probably been the best thing we ever bought."

Belcher highlights the additional creativity it affords his pupils, since they aren't constrained in their designs by what they can actually make themselves. "If you can model it on a computer, you can print it. You just create the assembly, save it, set up the printer and print it all in one go. You can even make assemblies that move, such as objects with gears, that the printer assembles while printing - I cannot understand how that is even possible." He also highlights the fact that as well as being able to design models on the school's Macs, the children are able to use free apps on their iPads to create printable sculptures. "They can use Autodesk 123D to create a sculpture, save it then 3D print it."

To a certain extent, although 3D printers can be very cheap, cost is still a problem. Although desktop 3D printers can cost as little as £150 online, making them seem incredibly affordable, Belcher didn't go for the cheapest 3D printer when he saw it, instead opting for a bigger, faster, more precise, more robust Stratasys Objet24 3D printer, that cost £28,000 - as with 2D printers, high quality, more versatile, high-performance 3D printers still cost more than the cheaper, low-quality, consumer models.

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