CREATE Education Hub, Newcastle University,Ā have the ambition for their student-led makerspace to lay the initial building blocks towards a University-wide interdisciplinary community of āmakersā where like-minded people connect and collaborate in a creative, non pressurised environment.
Students have 3D printed of a wheel hub for their IMechE Formula Student car which fits between wheel & disc brake with bearings either side of the wheel hub. Printed on an Ultimaker S5 3D printer, using Cura software and used as a prototype for validation checks before a metal version was produced.
“Makerspaces are a beneficial mechanism to allow students to gain practical engineering skills in education that they will then go onto using in industry.
Providing an ideal method of gaining a variety of core practical engineering skills in a facility for creating bespoke or one-off low-cost prototype solutions to engineering problems. The student-led makerspace allows practical opportunities for experimenting in a fun learning environment.āĀ
Paul Watson, Newcastle University.
A team at Newcastle University Makerspace worked non-stop during Covid lockdown March/April 2020 to produce over 2,500 visors for the NHS hospital trust, utilising their 3D printing facilities to create urgent- ly required PPE. The Makerspace staff interfaced successfully with other schools and departments relating to the manufacturing process of the overall project. Within a day of the visors being produced, the PPE was being used in the clinical environment in the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital Trust (NuTH).
