Device gives form to ideas
BUTLER TWP— Clint Cehily, a sophomore at Butler County Community College, used software and a new machine to build a tool.
"(The machine) helped me visualize the part," said Cehily, a computer aided drafting student from Saxonburg.
The rapid prototypingmachine is as innocuous as a refrigerator in a corner of the manufacturing lab at the college. But it helps manufacturing design students as well as CAD students see three-dimensional examples of the tools they design.
The apparatus builds samples of the parts the students design. It does so by melting a hard plastic and then dropping beads in a pattern that creates a working part that's 75 percent as strong as the real thing.
On Tuesday a class that included Cehily learned about reverse engineering a drill handle.
BC3 bought the rapid prototyper last semester with its $180,000 share of a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant is given to the college in three yearly allotments. Others sharing in the grant include Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wis., and Mott Community College in Flint, Mich.
The reverse engineering students are learning about taking an existing part and trying to duplicate it. Mike Aikens, a professor of natural science and technology, showed the students how to scan the part. The scan is then loaded into a computer, where specialized software makes decisions about building it.
The directions are sent to the rapid prototyper much like printing a document. In a few hours, the part is done. Then it is soaked in a chemical bath that removes excess plastic.
"It's a lot less time consuming," said Kimberly Hays of Butler, a BC3 senior. "You don't have to sit down and hand-draw things."
This is the first semester the advanced students have used the machine to complete projects.
"It's easier to look at the part and find problems," said Chip Kinney, a senior from Ford City.
Vinny Civitarese, a senior from Franklin Township, said complex parts are easier to develop.
Mike Robinson, a BC3 assistant professor of science and technology, said the experience is good for the students because the technology is similar to what is used in the industry. His hope is it will better prepare students for the working world.
The prototyper is an asset to many departments, Robinson said. Math classes can create diagrams of functions. Other classes can create real examples of usually abstract ideas.
"It brings the subject to life," he said.
