Northeastern Technical College adjunct instructor James Leviner, center, holds a prototype of a shear he made using a three-dimensional printer. He’s pictured with Engineering Graphics students Forrest Frye, holding a mold he made of NETC’s logo, and Jackie Arant, holding a mold of a house she designed.

October 13, 2011
NETC Students Riding the Next Wave of Technology With 3D Printing

Broke your last coffee mug? Can’t find your car keys? Need a new pair of shoes? Experts in the field of three-dimensional printing are predicting these items will be a button push away in the near future.

Students enrolled in the Engineering Graphics degree program at Northeastern Technical College are keeping up with the advancements in 3D printing and are exploring the possibilities of objects they can produce right in the classroom.

Forrest Frye, of Bennettsville, used a free online sketch program to get the dimensions for the logo used by Northeastern Technical College. He then plugged those into the 3D printing machine housed in the Electronics Technology Department, and several hours later, he was presenting one of his instructors, Michael Black, with a plastic model of the logo.

“That’s one way to earn extra credit!” Black said. “3D printing has been around for years, but advancements in the field are making the printers smaller and cheaper and increasing the possibilities of what you can reproduce. We’ve worked with several local industries to produce prototypes on our 3D printer on campus. The prototypes are then taken back to the plant and tested before being manufactured. What makes 3D printing technology so important for manufacturers is it reduces down time for manufacturing lines, as well as reduces set up and tooling costs.” 

So how does a 3D printer work?

A blueprint of an object for replication is drawn out in a computer aided crafting (CAD) program. Those dimensions are entered into the 3D printer, and then the object is progressively built up by adding material, in this case plastic, one layer at a time that fuses together.

“There are 3D printers that are capable of reproducing metal parts, so instead of having a prototype, you have an immediate workable part without any manufacturing costs, other than materials, or shipping costs,” Black said. “Students at NETC are gaining valuable jobs skills when they learn about 3D printing technology as it gains ground in the manufacturing world and with private consumers.”

James Leviner, of Wallace, is an NETC alumnus who started in the Machine Tool Technology program, but he found his real passion was for engineering graphics. He is now an adjunct instructor in the Electronics Technology and Engineering Graphics department at NETC.

“As 3D printing technology advances, it is going to have a huge economic impact on manufacturing,” Leviner said. “A manufacturer using a 3D printer to make parts eliminates tooling and set up costs. Therefore, making 1,000 parts becomes nearly as cheap as making one part.”

NETC’s 3D printer has allowed the College to provide services to local industries, but its mainly used as an educational tool in the classroom.

Jackie Arant, of Jefferson, drew up a blueprint of a house in her architectural class and plugged the dimensions into the 3D printer. Now she has a scaled-to-size version of her “dream house.”

Frye’s latest 3D printing project is creating the parts to make an acoustic guitar.

“Advancements in technology drive employers to require their workers to have specialized skills,” Dr. Ron Bartley, president of NETC, said. “Operation of a 3D printer is just one way in which our Applied Technology programs are providing the necessary training for NETC students to fill these high skill jobs.”

For more information about program offerings at NETC, visit the Pathways page, or call 1-800-921-7399.