The Centre for Enterprise Development (CED) houses a 3D Lab, the first of its kind in the country. This type of facility was introduced to the nation in a way for us to keep abreast of international trends and developments.
Purpose
The 3D Lab will serve to advertise to and educate the population on Rapid prototyping technology and 3D modeling while offering various services attached to the modeling process. The main purpose of the Lab is to show the innovative capabilities of the machinery and software. Prototypes of various objects are quite astounding, and are a definite must see.
Industries served:
- Engineering
- Education
- Architecture
- Business and Entrepreneurship
- Health and Wellness
- Marketing
How it’s done
The printer operates using a method called fused deposition modeling. This method consists of heating up a filament of plastic material stored on a spool until it becomes almost liquid. This is then extruded out, where it cools and becomes hard again. The object is built up layer by layer, in what is known as slices, until the desired object is materialized.
Currently we use two types of plastic filaments, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and PLA (polyvinyl alcohol).
