Calgary Business Brings Inventions to Life

Sitting in a lower-level apartment in a northwest residential community is a machine capable of printing ideas into tangible objects.

The ZPrinter 450 is a three-dimensional printer and the centrepiece of Stu Davies and Juanita Zwick’s rapid prototype and modelling company, 3 Print Dimensions. The couple started the company three years ago when some extra cash and a chance meeting clued them in on a major advancement in technology.

“I was working with a guy who did architectural blueprints, when someone came in holding ball bearings that were created by a 3-dimensional printer,” says Davies. Instead of sinking his $45,000 into the stock market, which was his original plan, Davies bought a four-foot by five-foot printer that could produce similar simulated ball bearings and much more.

Printing models starts with a computer file — it could be anything from architecture designs for a house to plans for a car part. That file is digitally dissected into hundreds of layers. The printer reads each of those layers and spreads a corresponding 0.1-millimetre-thick coating of powder across its bed. That is followed by a layer of glue, and then the next layer of powder. The process is repeated until the computer drawing is a fully realized three-dimensional object. A 10-inch-tall model is the culmination of 2,500 layers that can take up to six hours to print.

It’s a type of accurate and rapid prototyping that independent product designers and closet inventors are in desperate need of. And, while a few of Calgary’s larger architecture firms have their own three-dimensional printers, 3 Print Dimensions was the first company in Calgary to offer rapid prototyping services to independent designers, inventors and engineers. Anyone can e-mail computer files of their design, pay online through PayPal and receive their model within 48 hours.

The models can be used as an archive for patent protection, or sent overseas to be used as a model for product development. 3 Print Dimensions has printed prototypes of running shoe treads, handsaws and car transmissions, as well as Sea-doos and sailboats, all of which can be created using simple software such as Google SketchUp.

“The possibilities are endless,” says Davies. The printer is even capable of printing its own parts should it need repairs. “It’s like the Star Trek replicator. If you need a part, all you have to do is download the file and print it out.”

The most sophisticated three-dimensional printers can reconstruct damaged crime scene evidence, including rebuilding bones of murder victims. The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan has a printer that can “print” cookies and cakes. There are even machines that can print living tissue for skin testing or customized joint replacement. All it takes is slightly different printer models that can work with materials such as skin cells or cake batter.

In the meantime, back in Calgary, Davies and Zwick’s epoxy-and-resin models give us a taste of the potential of three-dimensional printing. It may seem advanced now, but the couple is convinced it will play a major role in the way we create once the public wraps their head around the concept. “Right now, it’s like watching people go by with horses and a chariot — and then Henry Ford comes along with an automobile,” says Zwick.