Engineering news
A London university is establishing a new facility crammed full of technology such as 3D printers that can be used by engineers to bring product ideas to life.
University College London will open the doors of the MakeSpace and Materials Library for students, staff and the public later this month. The facility will house thousands of different materials and a two-storey workshop space that aims to raise the profile of materials and making.
It forms part of the Institute of Making within the engineering department and will be a common, central part of the university for people from all academic disciplines to share knowledge and experiment with different materials.
Institute director Professor Mark Miodownik said: “If you have an idea to make something you can make it here. A lack of inspiration and know-how can stop people from making things. Here you are given permission to make mistakes.” The idea is that people from different backgrounds can teach each other new processes and brainstorm ideas. “Materials are not owned by science or engineering,” he added.
He explained that there is nothing like this elsewhere in the country – materials libraries and make spaces are usually found in architectural design colleges. The materials that line the walls of the library range from threaded steel, new formulations of rubber, honeycomb, metals, ceramics and polymers, to silicon nitride ball bearings, ferro fluid and thermochromic brick.
The workshop will include a complete set of tools to make anything. These will include CAD tools, 3D printers, vacuum forming machines, an electronics workshop, sewing machines and case cutters. The space is designed to give students hands-on experience of making products that are not necessarily part of their studies.
Miodownik said: “The problem with engineering is the lack of making facilities for students. It’s the core of the subject and the reason why lots of engineering graduates don’t go into engineering because they have lost their love for the subject – it has become too theoretical.”
He added: “If you give someone a workshop they can become engineers. Classrooms are not enough, in fact the classroom prevents people from becoming engineers.”
Each week the space will host masterclasses from experts in different areas, such as textiles, solar cells and welding, so that attendees can pick up new skills.