BU Rapid Prototyping Facility

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the BU RP Facility looking at a variety of options to support the effort to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Its inspiring to see so many companies putting designs online for free for others to use such as Prusa, Foster + Partners and Kitronik. Its taken some time to find a design that we could scale up using the resources we have available in the department but last week with the help of staff from across the university we produced over 500 face shields and hope to produce over a 1000 a week moving forwards.

BU Rapid Prototyping Facility added a Shop on Website button to their Page.

We are pleased to welcome our newest printer into the RP Lab. The Markforged Mark Two. The Mark Two can print composite parts as strong as aluminium, using continuous strands of Carbon fibre, Fibreglass, HSHT (High Strength High Temperature) Fibreglass and Kevlar.

This printer is available for use by staff, students, researchers and businesses. If you have any questions regarding the printer spec or use of the printer please contact the RP Lab.
[email protected]

Open day activity prep, project designed and manufactured in the BU Rapid Prototyping Facility.

Quick job for the machine shop to help with student projects, SolidWorks model, MakerBot print (material: PLA - 2.5hours print time)

The RP Facility went on tour this week to support Professor Debbie Holley’s inspirational lecture (Hashtags, Handhelds and Handbags). It was a very enjoyable evening with a lot of positive discussion around how 3D Printing and Virtual Reality can be used in the future of teaching.

Centre for Excellence in Learning | Technology Showcase Technology Showcase Posted February 2, 2018 by hsingleton & filed under CEL Staff, Conference Report, Creativity, Digital skills, Education, Events and workshops, Innovation, Mobile learning, Public Engagement, Teaching and Learning, Virtual reality. It was great to see both representatives from ....

Exploring new ways to create product demonstrations - 360 photo render from Autodesk VRED (model created in SolidWorks)

New Form2 Printers installed and happily working away, thank-you to our friends at Formlabs for the help and guidance in getting everything setup.

Our new Form2 printers have arrived. Should be up and running by the end of the week.

One for any Rick and Morty fans out there, with Halloween fast approaching we had a request for a 3D print of Rick’s portal gun. Due to the short turnaround time we had to keep things simple; 9 parts 8 of which are 3D printed and one bearing so the dial spins freely. Went together very well.

We think a light up version could be on the cards next.

New Z18 installed and running our BU test print.

The first of a number of new arrivals due over the next couple of weeks. In this case a second MakerBot Z18, great for the production of larger models.

BU Rapid Prototyping Facility updated their business hours.

Today's Form2 resin prints cleaned and cured ready for a student project that starts tomorrow.

A throwback to where it all began, we've come a long way in three years. Although we had been using 3D printers at the university for over a decade, September 2014 marked our drive to make it more accessible to students and staff by investing in new easy to use desktop printers.

BU Rapid Prototyping Facility updated their information in their About section.