Author Archives: richardsmith

3D Scan & VR Party with the Oxford 3D Printing Society

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VR_3DScan_Combined_lowWe hosted an event with the Oxford 3D Printing Society (http://oxford3dprintingsociety.com/) last week from within the RSL. It featured 3D Printers, 3D scanners and a virtual reality headset from HTC. We would like to thank Shin from the 3D Printing Society for putting on such a great event.

VR3DEvent_01_lowThe RSL 3D Printing Team was at hand to showcase our 3D printers and scanners to all the guests who arrived for the event, some even got themselves scanned and 3D printed! This was a great way to introduce people to the technology in a novel and fun way, we hope this will inspire them to use 3D printing/scanning in more creative and academic ways in the future.

HTC_Vive
HTC were also there to showcase their virtual reality headset the ‘HTC Vive’. This was a great introduction to the world of ‘VR’ for many who had a chance to try it out. At the RSL we have been interested in VR for awhile now and it was a great chance for the staff who hadn’t experienced it to finally give it a go. The ‘HTC Vive’ received great feedback from everyone who tried it and proved to be enjoyable for all the spectators to watch their peers jump around avoiding zombies and painting interesting works of art in a virtual world. This technology is going to change the way we interact with computers and at the RSL we look forward to being a part of it in the future.

3D printed prosthetic hands

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HeaderThe RSL 3D printing Team has recently been involved in an exciting and innovative project with researcher Ed Choi, working in the Department for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Churchill Hospital.

Ed Choi(right) with a healthcare worker in the northern city of Makeni.

He has been using the RSL’s 3D printers to create 3D prosthetic hands, downloaded from Enabling the Future, to show to charities in Sierra Leone for potential use for people who have lost limbs due to the civil war and the blood diamonds trade.

Two plastic hands were printed and taken on show to the Makambo Amputee Camp in Sierra Leone where a ‘fitting ceremony’ was held.  3D printing of plastic hands is a very cost-effective way to produce hands to a custom fit; the plastic hands cost £30-50 to make, a fraction of the cost of traditional prosthetic hands, and can be assembled relatively quickly.

The 3D models can be downloaded from http://enablingthefuture.org/, who offers many different options for you to choose from depending on the needs of the user. We printed these in four groups by colour, as seen in the picture above.

The hands took a total of 14 hours to print each one. We varied the resolution of each group to optimize printing time and quality depending on the part. The smaller pieces were printed at a higher resolution (0.2mm layer height.) to preserve the smaller details, whereas the larger pieces were printed at a lower resolution to optimize the printing times (0.3mm layer height).

These machines are available to all University students and staff, giving people the chance to learn about this cutting edge technology, and stimulate ideas about how 3D printing can be used in teaching, learning and research.

Several 3D Printer ‘bring a design/object’ events are scheduled throughout Hilary and Trinity Term and are open to students and staff from all disciplines. The events are running on Friday 11 March, 6 May and 10 June between 10-1pm, and 2-5pm. (http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science/use/3d-printing)

For further details on the 3D printing and scanning, please contact Richard Smith: Richard.smith@bodleian.ox.ac.uk, or view the online Lib Guide: http://ox.libguides.com/3dprintingscanning.