3d printing at ks5

TECH CENTRE CASE STUDYTeach Design ltd

3D printing at KS5Students at Clevedon School in have been using 3D printers for a number of years, by the time students reach KS5 they are familiar with the process of designing and printing 3D objects. The use of 3D printers has become an integral part of many Product Design projects undertaken by the students, it has become a “normal” technique in their “toolbox” of skills. This has meant that students have incorporated 3D printed parts into their project work where the process is most appropriate rather than using it as an end in itself.

Considerations1. As the 3D printing was part of the student’s OCR Product Design “coursework ”projects it was essential that students used the process to enhance the quality of their work rather than just provide a way of getting machinery to do the work for them. A simple rule of thumb was applied… Parts could only be 3D printed if there was no other method of making available to the students.2. With 3D printing being so quick and easy to do the students needed to think carefully about how to keep a record of their designing and processing of files to make their parts to ensure that they get credit for their work within the marking criteria. Presenting this work within a limited number of pages in their design portfolios required careful consideration.3. Who takes responsibility for the printing? With so many students needing to produce parts for their projects it was quickly realised that the only way to proceed was for students to do the printing themselves rather than rely on teachers or technicians doing it for them… all we needed was a “check in” system to ensure that everything had been set up correctly.4. Time… with so much printing going on we started to get a backlog of projects and the students at other key stages were missing out. We needed to get a balance between “teaching time” and “production time”, we adopted a booking system that prioritised teaching and learning during the school day and the production of parts for projects was often done overnight. For a few weeks our machines were running 24 hours a day.

@ Teach Design 2014 | Company No. 08388797 | Vat No. 163 3794 90 | [email protected]

CubeX and Cube 3D PrinterClevedonTech Centre

by Mr D White(Coordinator)May 2014

With thanks to

Designing and MakingThe project was designed using Autodesk Inventor. Component parts were exported as .stl files and processed using CubeX software for 3D printing using the CubeX printer.

Exemplar Project 1Amy- Martial arts trainerThe brief for this project was to design and make a portable training/teaching aid for a local martial arts club.


Mixed materials To ensure that the project gained marks in the “making” section of the marking criteria Amy ensured that she incorporated a variety of different materials and processes. Initially the base connector was made using a welded metal plate this distorted due to uneven heating. Amy therefore substituted this with a foldable tripod utilising 3D printed parts

Designing and makingDanny designed the tripod mount using a variety of software packages. The main structure and 3D printed parts were designed using Autodesk Inventor. The laser cut parts were designed using 2D Design.

TolerancesOne of the key parts of Danny’s design is the quick release mechanism using a dovetail fitting. The two parts needed to be made to ensure a good fit. The slope of the wedges being in two different planes meant that it would have been a difficult part to manufacture using subtractive CNC machines

Embedded partsSeveral parts required thumbscrews and threaded holes. Danny included hexagonal holes in these parts to embed steel nuts and bolt heads. These were printed slightly under size, the nuts were warmed and pressed into the printed parts to ensure a good fit.


Exemplar Project 2Danny- iPad Tripod MountThe brief for this project was to design and make a universal tripod mount for use in classroom observations.

Designing and MakingEmily designed this project using Autodesk Inventor. The bottle lids were exported as .stl files for processing in the CubeX software and 3D printing.Laser cut parts were exported from Inventor as 2D .dxf files.

Bottle LidsChildren sharing drink bottles is a possible health hazard. The children at the playgroup needed an easy way to identify their own bottles. Emily used a 3D Systems Sense scanner to scan the child's head which was 3D printed onto a lid designed in Autodesk Inventor. Printing the child's head onto the lid proved to be a mistake, they could easily identify other children but found it difficult to find themselves…. Animal heads proved much more successful!


Exemplar Project 3Emily- Drink Storage for PlaygroupsThe brief for this project was to design and make a safe storage system for water bottles at a playgroup. The children would have to be easily able to identify their own bottles.

StandardisationPolli designed the stage set using Autodesk Inventor. All component parts were designed to standard sizes based around whole, half and quarter sheets of MDF and plastic waste pipe.

IterationsThe corner joints started out as individual three way connectors. These were successful but difficult to assemble. The next design was to make clips that fitted externally but it was realised that a range of different connectors would be needed, 2, 3 and 4 way, straight, 90 degree and angled.

Mass productionPolli’s final design did however require a large number of joining clips. Rather than making these individually she printed 12 at a time by tiling these onto the print pad of the CubeX printer.


Exemplar Project 4Polli- Portable Stage Set/PropsThe brief for this project was to design and make a collapsible stage set suitable for a touring theatre company. The set would need to be able to be assembled in a variety of configurations to suit the stage production.

Through further experimentation Polli found that she only needed 2 different clips to be able to assemble many different configurations of joint.

3d printing at ks5

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