News from the CTC @ WVU Tech: Prototype Printer gives CTC the edge
CONTACT: William Javins
304-442-3317
From idea to reality: “prototype printing” puts the CTC@WVU Tech in the lead MONTGOMERY, W.Va. – Layer by layer, the white plastic “ink” is laid down as the printhead shuttles back and forth, side to side, round and round. It doesn’t look like much at first, but in the end, sitting there in the chamber, is a three-dimensional prototype that actually works.
Welcome to the world of stereolithography, and the Community and Technical College at West Virginia University Institute of Technology is at the forefront of state institutions providing its students hands-on experience with the technology. And, not incidentally, providing industry with an important and inexpensive design tool.
Besides, the “wow factor” is huge!
CTC at WVU Tech acquired the prototype printer earlier this year with the help of an Advance Workforce Grant through the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education and the state legislature. The printer has “opened up all kinds of doors for our design classes,” said Bill Javins, chair of the Computerized Drafting and Design Engineering Technology Department at the Montgomery school.
The prototype printer helps students verify their designs and has been a “terrific marketing tool” for the program, Javins said.
New students “don’t even know this kind of technology exists,” Javins said. Students began using the printer, a Dimension BST 768 manufactured by Stratasys Inc., during the spring semester. Its use is being broadened to other classes this fall, Javins said. It is also available to students in WVU Tech’s four-year program.
But the printer also provides a link between the theoretical world of education and the practical world of work.
NGK Sparkplugs (USA) Inc. in Sissonville, W.Va., has already made extensive use of the printer, testing designs of parts that make up the oxygen sensors it designs for the automotive industry. At the same time, the partnership provides students with direct connection to potential employers as well as the technology they’ll use once they receive a degree.
Davy Perdue, NGK’s manufacturing engineer and a WVU Tech alumnus, serves on the advisory board to the department and immediately recognized the benefits to industry. “Drawing something up and sending it to a machine shop for them to create a prototype was rather expensive,” Perdue said. “Additionally, the turnaround now is days instead of months.”
NGK has provided a “substantial donation” to the CTC at WVU Tech to help provide supplies for the printer, Perdue said.
Javins plans to have the printer on display in the Davis Hall lobby during Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 28-29.
-The CTC @ WVU Tech-
jb/8/30/07
WVU Tech News on the Web -- http://www.wvutech.edu/pressreleases/
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