DEMOCRATIC MANUFACTURING: A STUDENT MANUFACTURED & OPERATED 3D PRINTER FARM

Abstract

The DIY movement goes back to the late 60’s and started the trend of shared tools as a reaction to the lack of skills and education on how things are made; this resulted in an increased awareness of democratic manufacturing resources and facilities, especially makerspaces and hackspaces, innovation labs, 3D printer farms etc. At Nottingham Trent University (NTU), we have observed an increase in students choosing to study Product Design thus increasing pressure on workshop/manufacturing spaces, especially automated manufacturing resources such as 3D Printers. Subsequently, the maker experiences students have been experiencing within the workshop environment temporarily lessened to ensure the needs of our rapidly increasing student cohorts are catered for. This paper explores how democratic technologies and manufacturing tools have overcome this issue by enabling designers, makers, and hobbyists to increase their access to facilities within the Product Design Department at NTU. This paper explores/reflects on the initial development of a 3D printer farm located in a product design studio where a group of sixty-nine students manufactured/assembled eighteen Creality CR-10S 3D printers. The success of the initial student led democratic manufacturing project resulted in ADBE developing a second 3D printer farm in a second product design studio consisting of a further eight Creality CR-10S V3 3D printers. The 3D printer farms are now complimented by a blended induction allowing for student independent use of the resource. Student feedback is also presented regarding the blended induction to ascertain knowledge acquisition and confidence on using the resources independently.