A course focusing on 3D printing was offered for the first time this fall through the NDSU Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.
The course, Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing, is new this semester as a trial course in the agricultural systems management curriculum, and has been requested as a permanent course for future fall semesters. Seventeen of the available 20 seats were filled for the first class, which is taught by Matthew Olhoft, a senior lecturer of agricultural and biosystems engineering. This is the first course at NDSU dedicated solely to 3D printing.
“There is a need for our young engineers coming out of NDSU to be more aware of what they can do with additive manufacturing. More and more companies are switching over to additive manufacturing versus subtractive manufacturing, which is the milling of things like parts,” Olhoft said. “There’s just a lot more flexibility and the cost factors tend to be a lot cheaper, especially for producing prototype parts, with additive manufacturing.”
The course explores the process of printing, from designing a project to printing the product.
“3D printing is starting to get pervasive in our society in all kinds of levels. In the not-too-distant future, a lot of the parts that you need for machines will probably come to you via the internet. You’ll purchase an STL file and then you’ll actually print the part at your location or a local business,” Olhoft said.
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