Editorial

Citation

Campbell, I. (2007), "Editorial", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 13 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/rpj.2007.15613baa.001

Editorial

Rapid prototyping has now been used within industry for two decades or thereabouts. During this time, the cost of entry- level RP machines has dropped by an order of magnitude and they have also become much easier to use. Over the same time frame, the availability of solid modelling CAD systems has dramatically increased. It might therefore be expected that the use of RP within our schools would have blossomed, as it has done in many universities. However, in the UK at least, this does not seem to be the case. Despite the fact that many secondary (high) school children now have access to solid modelling CAD, a school that makes regular use of RP is still the exception rather then the norm. We could speculate as to the different reasons for this situation but one certain factor is a lack of knowledge about the technologies within the teaching profession. In the UK, most teachers of design- related subjects in schools have not graduated from an engineering programme where the topic of rapid prototyping and manufacturing will have been covered as a mainstream design or manufacturing technology. The only information they may have about RP will have come from the press or from personal contacts in industry. Such information may be outdated and often not presented with an educational application in mind. I would be very interested to hear if readers' experiences in other countries are similar.

Against this background, I was greatly encouraged by the recent experience I had with a secondary school near Nottingham. One of the Design Technology teachers in the school is a friend of mine and during a lunchtime conversation I mentioned to her some of the work Loughborough design students have been doing with RP. We decided to arrange a visit by her class of 17 to 18 year old pupils and some of the other teachers. During the visit the pupils were shown the RP equipment working, presented with some of the applications we have used it for and asked to think of how they could make use of it. The feedback we received was very positive with some of the pupils saying it was the most interesting visit they had ever been on. Subsequently, five RP models have been built for the school and a favourable write-up has appeared in the school magazine, hopefully to be read by other pupils and also parents. The aim is now to incorporate the potential use of RP into the design project for next year. The only downside to this from my viewpoint is that by age 17 and 18, pupils have already chosen the subjects that will dictate their higher education opportunities. I would like to reach them before this choice has been made in order to encourage them to consider design, engineering and manufacturing as possible career options. Similar accounts from readers who have succeeded in this area would be appreciated.

Finally, it seems that the growth of rapid manufacturing is leading to a resurgence in layered manufacturing conferences (certainly in Europe). The number of conferences dedicated to this topic had been dropping for many years, but now some new conferences have been launched and others are being “refocused”. For example, the International Conference on Rapid Manufacturing here at Loughborough University (mentioned in the previous issue's Editorial) and the Time Compression Technologies Rapid Manufacturing Conference. Another event that will be of interest to readers is the 5th Laser Assisted Net Shape Engineering conference to be held in Erlangen, Germany (For further details: www.lane2007.com).

Ian Campbell