New 3-D Printer For Our Robotics Program

We were visited this week by Dana Seero, the President and CEO of CAPINC–a leading Solidworks and Stratasys re-seller in New England. Dana and Jason Matses brought to our headquarters a new exciting tool, not only for our Robotics Program, but also for our educational initiatives–a MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3-D Printer.
Gloucester High School Robotics Teacher Kurt Lichtenwald, a key member of our Applied Robotics Club at the Paint Factory, has demonstrated the 3-D printers at the high school and offered to print us parts when we need them. As much as we appreciate this offer, it’s great to have a machine of our own that we can use on demand and also use to better understand how this technology can be integrated into our Robotics Program.
I am an advocate for 3-D printers on many levels. To have the ability to make and modify a small part, rather than have to wait a week to have it custom-made and mailed is very exciting. There is also a better use of materials with most 3-D printers nowadays, having the capacity to recycle the material that is not used. The MakerBot Replicator has a small web-linked camera that allows our team members to monitor the status of a project online.
For those of you who would like to learn more about 3-D printing I suggest Avi Reichental’s TED Talk “What’s Next in 3-D Printing.” He gives a great tour through the possibilities of 3-D printing from customized food to sneakers.
Many thanks to Dana and CAPINC for giving us this tool to will expand our research and educational capacity.
– Iain Kerr, Ocean Alliance CEO
[Pictured above: Greg Taylor, Dan Albani, Iain Kerr, Jason Matses]