The Value of Apprenticeships

It is National Apprenticeship week this week.

The "National Week of ...... whatever" is generally dedicated to raising awareness for a specific cause. This is one that strikes a chord with me. My own awareness of this particular cause has grown over the last couple of years, working with a client who is fully committed to increasing the number of apprenticeships within design and engineering to maintain and improve these skills in the UK. Indeed, Martin Stevens (CEO, A1 Technologies) has dedicated much of his professional life and a great deal of his own time to championing apprenticeships, specifically in these sectors.

My dad was an apprentice (Electrician), he was not particularly academic, and left school at the earliest opportunity. Sitting around was not an option — social and family pressures would not permit such idleness, and he would not have dreamed of fighting against it. Learning a trade while earning money (albeit a pittance) was an acceptable alternative, and he retired a few years ago from an extremely well paid career as a Project Manager, overseeing multi-million pound electrical installations.

The ethos behind today's apprenticeship schemes has not changed much — opportunities are open to young people to identify a profession of interest and to learn as they work (still for a pittance). The value of working alongside people with hands-on experience cannot be overstated. What has changed — dramatically — is the social and cultural pressures surrounding young people. Doing something rather than nothing is considered a joke, particularly when the 'something' pays considerably less than the 'nothing.' Society is now so greatly fragmented, with a constant "me, Me, ME" mentality, that the greater good is all but ignored, overlooked or forgotten.

Expounding the virtues of apprenticeships is a worthy goal, but until social and family values widely echo those of our ancestors once again, it is unlikely that apprenticeships will hold much appeal for today's teenagers in any great number.

One ray of hope, which confronted me just this morning, and prompting this post, is that the University fees debate, might just work in favour of apprenticeships. With the prospect of mounting debts putting potential students of low-middle income families off university, apprenticeship schemes could win out? It is a question I am posing, rather than a statement of fact.

I will be watching for the answer.

Stereolithography (of sorts) Featured on Sky One Series "Bones"

It was great to see stereolithography (SLA) highlighted —albeit with some dramatic license — on the latest epidsode of "Bones" tonight. There I was, glass of wine in hand, watching one of my favourite shows, when the (fictional) forensic scientists at the Jeffersonian institute started producing a bright blue, full sized skeleton based on the 3D data that had been reverse engineered from the discovery of a skull. The ensuing laser show in a huge vat (reminiscent of Materialise's Mammoth machines) of bright blue polymer was impressive and grabbed all of the characters' attention. It even had my husband doing a double take and asking me if "that was the stuff that I blabbed on about?"  Angela (the computer whizz of the group) who had acquired the machine, gave a great description of the process and how it builds a 3D model from 2D layers of the polymer from computer generated 3D data. Her verbal enunciation of the name did make me smile though: 'Stereo-lith-o-graph'. (Note the omission of the "y"). Not sure why. The only other misrepresentation came from the implication that the model was built very quickly — approximately 20 seconds, when in reality a build like that would take more like 20 hours.

Once the skeleton was built, Cam did a great job of promoting the advantages of the models as she examined it, namely that the model's joints had precisely the right movements as those of a real skeleton. She then quipped her request for a real 34 year old buff male, produced on the machine — if only!!!

The two things that have struck me most. First, forensic science is an excellent application for this technology. Second, after 17 years, I think my hubby has finally grasped what fills my working life!

I Don't Dispute the Value of Exhibitions and Events, But ....

the chatter emanating from Texas — SolidWorks World 2011 — this week has been prolific, and, to put it bluntly, largely irrelevant.

Whether it is in the form of blogs or tweets, often both, the "information" hitting the net is more representative of the social- / celeb-centric world that we live in rather than any applicable business / software solutions for everyman! There may have been one or two notable exceptions.

SolidWorks World has a tradition of being the place to be in January for any serious reporters/Editors in the 3D software sector. It still is, apparently, but it's no longer an exercise in reporting on new developments and applications, rather it is a flimsy excuse for a piss-up — or should that be piss-take — with plenty of bitchy comments flying around.

Kevin Bacon's appearance on stage seems to have been the highlight, although it seems no one there could work out why! (That little snippet, however, has subsequently been topped by Will.i.am's appearance for Intel.) Interested parties can also find plenty of information on boring sessions and glazed eyes all round, bets taken between delegates to break the tedium, and an endless description of what they are all eating and drinking. Soooooo not interested!!!

Seems pointless all round really, particularly the unnecessary (and extensive) addition to the T&E budgets of the media.

Surprised — hardly; irritated — definitely.

The End of the Solido Era?

A report issued by Globes, Israel's Business Arena, on Thursday last is starting to cause a stir within the 3D printing industry — and rightly so. The report states that: "Sources inform ''Globes'' that the company has laid off its entire staff of 30 employees and entered receivership."

This is coming as somewhat of a shock to many, in that the company had only recently reported significant investment followed by a pretty full-on marketing campaign. Unfortunately, if the report is accurate, the investment did not fully manifest and the company had no where else to go. If this all bears out, then I will be sorry — I could see the very real potential of this 3D printing technology but I do believe that Solido had misplaced aspirations and missed a trick. This middle of the road technology was above average in its capabilities. When I say "middle of the road" I am referring to where is was positioned within the market ie ahead of the RapMan, Makerbot genre and behind Dimension, ProJet et al. Unfortunately, rather than picking one side of the road on which to productively compete, Solido tried to be both. User feedback on the Solido 300 is very positive, and I have seen some of the models that can be produced and was impressed. However, I reported on my dismay at the company's deceptive approach to its pricing last year. Hidden costs never go down well in the long run!!

Understanding & Appreciation Takes Time

The worlds of additive manufacturing and 3D printing continue apace as 2011 gets well and truly underway. One clarification in my own mind is that these two worlds are distinct and very different. As with 2010's early posts, when I committed to regular posting, which in the main, I think I have achieved, I want to up the ante again this year, and challenge myself, particularly when things get much busier towards the end of the year, which they tend to do. However, to kick this year off, I am going with a little sentiment bolstered by true motivation. You have the comment section to disagree .......

I have been working and reading a little over the Christmas and New Year break, which marks the two year anniversary of my freelance career — the greatest joy of which is that, in the main, I get to pick and choose my schedule, particularly over holiday periods, unlike in my previous life, when school holidays tended to clash with critical deadlines, and the prioritised family time was often sidelined for more pressing 'priorities' that needed attention asap.

The new year is also the 21st anniversary of the passing of my paternal grandfather — a man whom I loved and respected greatly throughout my childhood and adolescence. I do not bring up this second anniversary to evoke any sort of sadness or maudlin thoughts, rather it is to share a nugget of advice — priceless in my opinion — that this lovely man shared with me as I started out on my university career, just a few months before he died, but which has stayed with me to this day and it influenced me greatly in my decision to go freelance. 

After a partisan expression of how proud he was of me and that he had no doubts that I would succeed at whatever I chose to do in my future career etc etc; he imparted this wisdom — "There is something else that I want you to remember, even if you don't quite understand it now: never look back with regret and always double check your priorities. It is important to remember that no one lies on their deathbed and wishes that they had spent more time at work." 

I didn't push him for further explanation at the time. At 18, I understood the concept of regret in terms of hair styles and fashion choices, maybe even wasted time on boys that were definitely "the one" — until the next day, anyway; priorities were defined in terms of subject choice and where to work that summer; and looking back was a case of assessing the previous weekend with my friends. But as with most teenagers, I assumed I knew exactly what he was talking about and agreed.  With hindsight — but without regret — I would like to have understood the thoughts and the experience behind the knowledge rather than guessing at them. Fortunately, what I did do 21 years ago was to write down what he had said to me and ponder on it at various times over the next two decades. At the close of the last decade, I came to fully understand — and greatly appreciate — precisely what he was telling me and I was able to benefit from it immensely — I still am. 

What on earth prompted me to share this? I think it was to do with numerous recent conversations that have illustrated to me that everyone has to deal with day-to-day priorities, and very often it is too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. I was lucky enough to have great wisdom imparted that was to influence me at a major crossroads sign, I feel lucky and privileged to have benefitted from it and believe there is no harm in passing it out to anyone that can benefit from it also — whether now or in 20 years time! 

Something A Bit Different within the 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing World

At this time of year (post Euromold) there is generally a great deal of buzz and internet chatter about the new additive manufacturing / 3D printing developments that were announced at the German design and manufacturing show. Many vendors favour Euromold as the launch pad for their newest machines and/or materials for understandable reasons.

However this year, despite a couple of "new" [for new read 'different sized'] machines (3D Systems, Objet) and improvements to materials, is a year of incremental improvements and the buzz just doesn't seem to have manifested itself. The loudest gasps seem to have emerged from the announcement that MTT is splitting its activities — with the German and the UK operations going their separate ways. Interesting, but really just company politics. It will take some time to see where that is going and the intent behind it.

Similarly, Bits from Bytes seems to have hit the wrong note by producing a pink version of its RapMan kit and branding it the 'RapChick'. Gimmicky tokenism is NOT what this industry needs. I did start to write my ranting response down, slept on it, and thought better of it. Deleted the lot. I'll just go with this much more reserved paragraph here, and also reference a much more mature and productive response from Ann Marie Shillito of Anarkik 3D: http://annmarieshillito.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/virtual-3d-world-is-very-bright-and-tangible-but-not-pink/

Anyway, to the point of this blog post — something that came to my attention this morning and made me really sit up and take note. It came via REPLICATOR [replicatorinc.com], a blog post that today was awash with information. But pick through it carefully and you find a fascinating nugget detailing "Giant 3D Printed Chairs." I've seen chairs before — but not quite like this. The original article is from Suzanne Labarre at Co.Design [http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662793/giant-robot-prints-chairs-from-ground-up-refrigerators-video].

The whole project is the work of a Dutch design student, Dirk Vander Kooij (nice name and I really like his hair!!). He has obviously worked this design concept up in a 3D CAD package, but then this remarkable young man has used his knowledge with some ingenuity to breakdown some old fridges into usable material that can be deposited layer by layer (sound familiar??) via a rusty old robot arm. And it really is rusty, as you can see in the video. The robot can be programmed to produce the chairs in a variety of sizes, shapes and colours, all at low resolution, at approximately two hours per chair. If, like me, you are starting to do the sums in your head, there is some serious potential here. Now there is no indication of how long it takes to break down the fridges or how long it took to refurb the robot and so on, which would all need factored in. However, the latest news update is that Dirk is offering these chairs for sale at 800 Euros each. And as Suzanne points out, if the machine was running round the clock, it could produce 4000 chairs a year — that is a potential turnover of 3.2 million Euros. Anyone else just spluttered into their coffee?? My guess is the chairs possibly won't sell like hot cakes in the current climate at that price, but this is a true example of an additive manufacturing application coming from left of centre and I truly hope it becomes a big success story for Mr Vander Kooij.

The video demonstrating the process in action is entitled "Endless" which I am taking to refer to the possibilities here. I am now wondering what could be achieved with a bigger budget and state-of-the-art robots in a clean room facility.

TCT Live 2010 — A worthwhile trip.

The fog is starting to clear following a successful TCT event at the Ricoh Arena earlier this week. This is a show that I have been involved with in one way or another for the last 15 years, and the 2010 edition was, it has to be said, a triumph — in terms of organisation and results.

TCT has continued to grow in terms of its physical size and visitor numbers year on year, and 2010 was no exception. The industry's worst kept secret was also launched on the second day of the show, with the announcement that in 2011, TCT will move to the NEC in Birmingham to run alongside MM Live once again, as well as Interplas — Rapid News Communications' latest acquisition.

Although no longer directly employed by RNC, this year I was commissioned to draw together the conference programme on Additive Manufacturing and it was a good line up (even if I do say so myself). The subsequent feedback has been very encouraging from delegates at the conference during the two days as well as notes dropping in my in box since. (Almost worth the sleepless nights!!)

Walking the halls was also very positive, virtually everyone I met and spoke with was infinitely more up beat than this time last year, although it should be said that quite a few of them were tracking the CSR as it was delivered on Wednesday afternoon on their hand-held devices. Nobody can quite define how the impact will roll out into industry, but business seemed brisk on the show floor.

The other thing that struck me was that TCT continues to gain prominence for the additive technology vendors — for AM and 3D printing. The majority of vendors have always had a presence at TCT but now the CEO's are showing their faces and not just sending minions!

All in all a valuable three days away from the office.