Moving 3D Printing beyond the Desktop within Higher Education

Abstract

The earliest inventions informing additive manufacturing development were in the 1960s, with its first commercialisation as stereolithography in 1987. However, it was the expiry of the fused deposition modelling patent that led to a rapid expansion in use of the technology in education in the last decade, as low-cost desktop 3D printers flooded the market. Whilst advocates for the democratisation of making have expounded the virtues of the newly accessible technology, popularly known as 3D printing, and made claims for its use across a myriad of applications, there has been a lack of clarity between what can be produced on a desktop printer as opposed to within an industrial additive manufacturing facility. In addition, the skills required to produce quality outcomes on desktop or industrial equipment tend to be downplayed. As a result, there has been a degree of disillusionment in education, with 3D printing relegated to the role of additional workshop tool, useful for prototyping, rather than fulfilling any expectations for facilitating industry 4.0 and distributed manufacturing. This chapter considers this situation a decade on from the initial launch of desktop printers and provides a position for asserting the importance of high-end additive manufacturing in learning and exploration of service bureaus to support learning by making in higher education.