Next spring, the College of Business is offering a new 3-D printing class to 21 students from the colleges of Engineering, FAA and Business.

“Because 3-D printing is going to be bigger than the Internet,” said Aric Rindfleisch, executive director of the Illinois MakerLab and Business professor. “It’s the next big thing that’s going to change the world as we know it.”

3-D printers are manufacturing tools that create physical objects from digital designs by layering materials to construct a three-dimensional product. Due to their additive approach, they can produce complex designs that are difficult to manufacture using conventional techniques.

They can be used to make a variety of objects ranging from toys to household devices. Commercial 3-D printers are commonly used for design and prototyping in a variety of industries, including aerospace, architecture and automobiles, and are employed in the dental and medical fields as well, Rindfleisch said.

Currently, the use of 3-D printing is on the rise. It has been identified by the U.S. government as a key component for regaining U.S. competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. It is reshaping business and now, business education, he said.

“There is no other class like this,” Rindfleisch said. “The students are going to be broken up into three teams of Engineering, Art and Design and Business students. They are going to conceptualize a design and manufacture a product during the course, and their grade will be dependent on performance outcome.”

Rindfleisch is looking for five more engineering students to take the course that will be held three hours a week at the MakerLab.

“This class is going to be giving students the ability to work closely with this transformative technology,” Rindfleisch said. “A lot of it is going to be collaborative and there’s going to be a lot of peer learning involved. It’s going to give students an opportunity to be at the forefront of this economic revolution.”

The MakerLab that recently moved to the Business Instructional Facility early this month is the world’s first business school-based 3-D Printing Lab, according to Director Vishal Sachdev.

The lab is equipped with 12 MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3-D Printers, 3-D design software and two 3-D scanning devices.

“The idea of the MakerLab is to make 3-D printers accessible to students and faculty,” Sachdev said. “There are other 3-D printers around campus, but the ones that we have here are less expensive and much more low-tech and with some orientation, you can start printing stuff yourself.”

The process is relatively simple; the only complications can arise from using the modeling software. However, there are “Lab Gurus,” students in Engineering, marketing and design who are experts in 3-D printing, available in the lab to help students out.

“I’m in here to help people out with the printers, scanners or the software TinkerCad,” said junior in LAS Ryan Hurley. “We also offer open tutorials, open house or open printing sessions. We offer a lot of different orientation; however, the idea of the lab is for it to be self-sufficient.”

Prints are priced by weight at five cents per gram for students, 10 cents for faculty departments and 15 cents for all other users.

“Everybody comes in here,” Hurley said. “We get architecture students that come in to make models, art and design students that come in here to be creative, faculty members and even people with their 9-year-old son.”

Though the 3-D printers in the MakerLab only create objects using a type of thermoplastic, commercial 3-D printers can make objects from a wider variety of materials, including wood, glass and metal.

“This course is going to be giving students a chance for some hands-on experimental learning with digital manufacturing,” Rindfleisch said. “A lot of big companies like Boeing are trying to experiment with this technology, and there’s a strong corporate interest in this. This will give students the chance to be a part of this new movement — to be a part of the future.”

Julianne can be reached at [email protected].