Niagara college students introduced to 3D Printing Technologies

3D printing is a transpiring technology that is persistently growing and gaining attention globally in a variety of fields.

On February 22nd, Theo Athanasiou, Professor at school of media studies, Niagara College, led a team of his students to Custom Prototypes with the aim of diving deep into the world of 3D printing and exploring its applications in product development life cycle. The primary focus of the visit was to introduce the students on the concept of prototyping and the stages product crosses before landing into the real market.

Professor Theo Athanasiou mentioned, “the idea of the tour is to get the students to start seeing the entire process that a new product will likely go through and what is actually involved when taking a concept all the way through to market. They are all creative and talented, but they need to understand some of the important steps that may fall outside their traditional comfort zone. Finding a quality manufacturer to produce a prototype is a crucial step as the prototype is an important component in selling the vision to others.”

The interactive session held at Custom Prototypes facility fascinated the students and chaperone as they were practically able to see our metal and SLA 3D printers in action, as well as Vacuum forming plastic parts. we thoroughly explained the steps of prototyping in 3D printing starting from concept sketch that further leads into formation of virtual prototype (digital file) and finally the generation of first physical copy of the product (prototype) that undergoes tests and validations before it culminates in mass production.

The discussion also incorporated an entrepreneurial theme that outlined our potential clients, applications of 3D printing in different industries, our quality control standards and brief overview of our 3D printing service.