Image
Advanced Digital Design and Fabrication
The equipment found in the Advanced Digital Design and Fabrication (ADDFab) core facility are not your average consumer 3D printers.
ADDFab is home to five industrial-grade, state-of-the art 3D printers that can produce a limitless array of objects in a variety of polymer and metal materials.
“We’re not afraid to play with the settings, try different materials, and stretch the limits of what they can do,” said director Dave Follette (pictured at center, with undergraduate students in the facility, below). A mechanical engineer, Follette previously worked at Carbon, a Silicon Valley company that produces 3D printers. This kind of experimentation with alloys, he explained, allows for the development of objects with more advantageous material properties, such as being stronger, lighter, or better optimized for 3D printing.
While the ADDFab core serves many UMass researchers, the majority of its users come from outside of the university.
“We help a lot of local companies in Massachusetts, including quite a few start-ups that are still developing their products,” Follette said. 3D printing is ideal for these companies because it naturally enables iteration on a design in progress. For example, ADDFab worked with a company to produce a case for its tiny Raspberry Pi computer. “We’ve done 20 revisions on the first case and just did the 10th revision on the second,” said Follette. “They’ve printed hundreds of them to sell.”
ADDFab supports customers at various stages in the design process. “Sometimes we start from a literal napkin sketch and help them make the design then print it. Other times, they come in with a fully formed design,” he said.
The 3D printers allow companies to manufacture a small quantity of a product at a time, avoiding holding costly inventories, and are versatile enough to make a wide range of objects—from research tools to hydropower turbines to water nozzles.
Just as important as serving its clients is ADDFab’s mission to train students.
“My goal at UMass is not just to print parts, but to familiarize undergraduates with the power of 3D printing. I want them to go out into the world knowing that 3D printing is a viable manufacturing method, and to gain skills using the equipment,” Follette said. He added, “I’ve never had to recruit. I think students find it pretty amazing to just see something on the computer and within hours or a day, it’s solid and you can hold it.”
Niko Eliopoulos is a junior mechanical engineering major who works in the lab and wants to pursue a career in additive manufacturing. “Most of what we learn as undergraduates is theoretical,” he said. “It’s good to gain practical experience as well on this industry-level equipment.”
Added Devin Dixon, also a junior mechanical engineering major in the lab, “It’s good professional experience to work with all different types of companies.”