A student from the International School of the Algarve near Porches is leading a school team project to assemble a ‘RepRap’ 3D Printer.
The 3D printer will provide valuable experiences for students interested in design, electronics and computer programming and it will be assembled by a team of students and teachers led by Year 13 student Johan Crook.
The ‘RepRap’ 3D Printer prototype is expected to be unveiled at the school’s Science Fair in April.
Johan Crook said: “I’m really excited to go through with this. It’s never been done before at this school, so I’m looking forward to contributing to advancing the school’s technology with my team.”
‘RepRap’ (short for replicating rapid prototyper) is an initiative to develop a 3D printer that can print most of its own components, which means it is mostly self-replicating once the first model has been made.
The initiative started in 2005 at the University of Bath in the UK. It is a free software sharing initiative where each prototype contributes to the development of the best 3D printer.
The ‘RepRap’ initiative has already validated four 3D printer models and Johan Crook’s team will assemble a prototype from the ‘Mendel’ model (2009), with the support of teachers from the Physics and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) departments.
The project was proposed by Johan Crook himself as a boost to his application to the University of Bath.
The International School of the Algarve gave full support to the proposal and will hold this 3D printer technology to service new generations of students.
