How to Give Students the Skills to Access 3D Printing, Desktop Manufacturing, and Industrial Design:

Industrial Design – The Impending Renaissance

By Stephen Portz and Joshua Aurigemma

In the 1980’s three technologies converged to create a revolution in the printing world.  These technologies were the Macintosh computer with a WYSIWYG feature, the laser printer, and postscript fonts.  Each of these innovations played significant roles in providing for what we now know as desktop publishing.  Giving the masses the tools to create their own published works forever changed the graphic arts, printing, and publishing worlds.

Similarly, the product design trifecta of 3D design software, rapid prototyping machines, and open source electronics, are creating a perfect storm with which to launch a new age in desktop manufacturing and industrial design.

Photo 1 - "LovLit" Candle Prototype by Industrial Designer Joshua Aurigemma

The Parallels are Unmistakable

Desktop publishing technology not only altered forever the way publishing took place, but it created a boom in the study and practice of graphic arts.  Most companies at that time had entire departments devoted to promotion, product advertising, print layout, and publication; the nature of the work demanded it because it was mostly a manual activity with significant levels of artistry involved.  With desktop publishing, most of the nuances of the craft could be automated through software applications and high quality computer printers.  As a result, anyone with these desktop technologies could learn how to publish and many did.  Across the nation, graphic arts programs were expanded and desktop publishing courses were offered in most every high school in the country.

Many industry leaders are predicting a similar event taking place in the field of desktop manufacturing.  The technologies have aligned in much the same way for 3D manufacturing that they did for desktop publishing.  In a recent edition of “Make” magazine, 23 commercially available desktop 3D printers are reviewed.  Most of them carry a price tag of less than $2000, but some are available for less than $1000.  The simple fact that the “Make” magazine did not even exist ten years ago and that Maker Faires numbered over 100 conferences on five continents across the globe this past year, speaks to the exponential growth of the movement.  For comparison’s sake it should be noted that one of the first widely available commercial laser printers, the one that essentially launched the desktop publishing revolution, cost almost $7000.  With the price of a suitable computer and publishing software, a desktop publishing workstation back in the day cost over $10000.  Today, a quality desktop manufacturing workstation can easily be had for less than half of that cost.

Photo 2 - Afinia 3D Printer (Courtesy Afinia Corp)

With greater ease of access to the tools of manufacturing, the entire world of inventing and product ideation will enter a new age of development.  How should we prepare our students for this?

The Elements of Desktop Manufacturing 

3D printers allow users to take virtual creations of solid objects or assemblies of objects and “print” them in successive vertical layers of extruded molten plastic.  An additive design, 3D printer, or rapid prototyping machine is much like the marriage of an ink jet printer and a hot glue gun but with the addition of the Z axis.  The computer directs the nozzle of the printer to extrude a layer of plastic material, moves the nozzle to the next layer height, and does it again. 

There are other types of 3D printing technologies, but this method is by far the most common and the least expensive for would be desktop manufacturers.  The computer system is so ubiquitous it barely merits a mention in passing, but any system used must be powerful enough to effectively drive the 3D design modeling software.  Common programs include SolidWorks, Inventor, Solidedge, PTC Creo and others.  Each program is very graphics intensive and requires powerful processors and graphics card support.  These professional programs are expensive and boast a steep learning curve, but there are free programs available for younger students and entry level users.  These include Sketchup, 123D Design, Blender, Tinkercad, OpenScad, and others.  While any three dimensional drawing program that allows you to output to an .STL or similar format file will do, the work of an industrial designer highly favors a professional drawing tool.

 

Open Source Electronics

The development of open source electronics has in a similar fashion put the design of the control aspects of the product in the hands of the consumer.  Formerly accessible only to electronics manufacturers with expensive printed circuit board design and printing equipment, open source electronics control options give the would be inventor the ability to design, construct, and prove sophisticated prototypes that use computer processing control.

 The Arduino microcontroller is one such solution.  With the footprint of a credit card, it allows a developer to control an electronics system by using 14 input/output pins.  Control software and programming is uploaded to the flash memory via a USB port.  Additional and specific functionality is provided to the Arduino by stacking commercially available boards or “shields” to the microprocessor.  Arduinos are used extensively in robotics design, perhaps most notably in the popular quadricopter UAVs.

  Photo 3 - Raspberry PI (Image Courtesy of Raspberry PI Foundation)

 Another open source option for electronics control is the Raspberry PI.  Created about the same time as the Arduino, the PI is not just a microcontroller it is an entire computer in miniature. The Raspberry is powered by a 5 volt micro USB connection. It has a 700MHz processor with a half Gig of SDRAM.  There are video out ports for HDMI to drive a monitor with resolutions up to 1920 x 1200, but there is also a composite RCA to allow connection to a television set.  A 3.5mm jack is provided for audio in/out as well as an Ethernet port for networking and two USB 2.0 ports.  For storage, the Pi uses SD cards with the operating system preinstalled. 

 

Industrial Design and Industrial Design Education

With the convergence of these technologies, the foundation is set for a renaissance in industrial design.  Just as access to the tools of publishing created an explosion of desktop design and publishing, along with an educational movement to support it, so too will desktop manufacturing necessitate instruction in the elements of product design.

Much like engineers, the work of an industrial designer is to balance design criteria with constraints and trade-offs to optimize solutions; But with a twist, industrial designers seek to add value by increasing utility and significance of products.  To do this, designers use the intersections of desirability, feasibility, and viability to arrive at the optimum solutions to a product idea.  What are the dynamics of each of these qualities that makes such a difference in good designs?

Desirability – Does the product have value to the consumer?  Obviously this quality is relative as winter clothing doesn’t have near the appeal in Florida that it has say in Minnesota.

Feasibility – This is the engineering aspect of the design.  It may have enormous merit and potential to the consumer, but do we have the ability to make it, make it so it works, and make it so lasts?

Viability – Are we able to make the product with the means and methods that will allow us to realize a reasonable profit margin? What is the competition doing?  Can we add value to the market? What is our benefit to risk analysis?

Inventing by using the Industrial Design Process

With these tools of product design and development our workforce is empowered to evolve from the aspiration of being job seekers to now being job creators. But what is the process of product design and creation?

 

Photo 4 - StoryBoarding a Product Idea  (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

Effective designers are quick to observe societal needs.  They use their multidisciplinary knowledge of people, business, and materials, manufacturing methods, engineering and aesthetics to create things of value. 

A common technique in product ideation is storyboarding.  Storyboarding allows the designer to flesh out the intricacies of the problem as well as demonstrate how the solution may be refined.

If there is parity between a recognized need and a product that fulfills the requirements of that need, the designer moves on to refine their design.

  

Photo 5 - Product Form and Function Workup  (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

(The genesis for an electronic candle idea emerges from the metaphor of a growing affection as a light which glows brighter, or the obverse effect, with the candle dimming.  This prompts an idea for adding value to the design by using a Bluetooth system driven through the cellphone network. The technology allows for a matched pair of candles to synch with one another across the world to communicate affection and let the other candle’s owner know they are being thought of.  One owner picking up and holding the candle will cause their light to glow brighter.  The other owner’s candle gradually synchs with the original to also begin to glow brighter).

 

Photo 6 - Refined cross-sectional design of a product idea (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

Every designer has a different style. To characterize all industrial designers and reduce their activity to a step by step cookbook process oversimplifies the art.  There are layers of consideration which draw upon the designer’s expertise all along the way that challenge the premise of their designs.  Again, like engineering, industrial design is a true iterative process and the best designers are able to dispense with unworkable solutions quickly and intuitively.

Photo 7 - Early electronics circuit design of product (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

Which comes first?

Is the electronic schematic determined before the designer starts proto boarding or does the designer document schematically what the circuit ended up being after trials on the proto board?  Does the designer know what the shape of the product will be before they draw it up, or do they draw it up and then learn what the shape will be?  The answer to both questions is “yes”.

Photo 8 - Prototyping the Product Circuit (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

Changing accessibility in the industry

Desktop manufacturing will automate many of the heretofore skilled manual tasks in much the same way as desktop publishing systems automated previous publishing industry methods.  Much of the work of industrial design is prototyping.  This is usually conducted by laboriously hand cutting forms in wood, shaping foam materials, creating molds and castings using wax, plaster, silicone rubber, and plastics.  The artistic aspects of this process were formerly a barrier to career entry as an industrial designer.  Now, much of this art is eliminated by using the 3D printer - rapid prototyping machines.

 Photo 9 - Refined Product Prototype (Image Courtesy of Joshua Aurigemma)

How can teachers prepare students to be industrial designers?

Teachers can help students by giving them familiarity with modeling and design tools.  Giving our students abilities with these processes adds powerful tools to their repertoire toolkit. In this way students begin to view problems as potential products that they can see themselves creating.

What exactly should be in our student’s toolkits?

The world is 3D and our students need to visualize and design in 3D.  Give students the ability to represent ideas in 3D by teaching them to use a 3D drawing program.  Get an inexpensive 3D printer and require students to design and produce 3D output using the device.  Teach basic electronics with simple proto boards.  Then teach them electronics control methods using a Picoboard, Arduino, or Raspberry PI and require them to do a project.  Use a simple programming language like Scratch or Lego Mindstorms to learn to write a custom electronics control script.  Teach them the skills of craftsmanship using traditional shop tools.  Introduce a unit on inventing and innovation and require a product from each student.

We are entering the age of mass entrepreneurship, where small companies with the ability to respond quickly to consumer needs will be rewarded.  It will be an age of so called “black collar” workers, so named after the peerless Steve Jobs and his characteristic black turtleneck.

Desktop manufacturing has the potential to change our educational purpose from helping our students to become job seekers, to helping our students to become job creators as they learn the principles of industrial design and go on to create innovative products on their own.

 Photo 10 - Testing the Product Prototype (Image Courtesy of Joshua Arigemma)

Stephen Portz is an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow,  Prior to this appointment, he worked for Brevard Public Schools in Florida where he has taught Engineering and Technology for 25 years. sportz.einsteinfellow@gmail.com

Joshua Aurigemma is a freelance Product Developer with a B.S. of Industrial Design from
Georgia Institute of Technology. He embraces 3D CAD, desktop manufacturing and open-source
electronics to develop products. joshua.aurigemma@gmail.com