18 • January 29, 2015
New Paltz Times
It’s the economy
Facing toward the future
VIOLET SNOW
Dean Daniel Freedman with a prosthetic hand made at
the 3D lab.
There are printers that have the capacity to print
in metal or concrete, some of them big enough to
print a concrete house in one day. The SUNY New
Paltz machines are refrigerator-sized or desk-sized
and use plastic similar to the substance Legos are
made of. Filaments of the plastic are heated, extruded through a hole as small as .4 millimeter, and laid
down in layers, with the print head guided by a software program.
Because the printing process can take four or five
hours for each object, said Freedman, it’s not meant
for large-scale production but for prototypes, molds,
and individualized items. He gave the example of
a product his lab made for a Hudson Valley-based
company. “They sell a handmade silver bridal bouquet holder for $7000, but they wanted a cheaper
one. They developed four or five designs that can be
customized and printed out. This is how consumer
products will change.”
When Kingston High School was celebrating its
100th anniversary, a student with an interest in engineering designed a commemorative model of the
school. At the New Paltz lab, 150 copies were printed
to sell at the high school.
A Poughkeepsie insurance agent came to the lab
when a client with a recreational vehicle had an accident that wrecked his bumper. “The RV company
went out of business,” said Freedman, “and he
couldn’t get replacement parts. We printed him a
new bumper that looked just like the old one.”
Jointed steel prosthetic devices for paraplegics
generally cost around $30,000 each, so they are
rarely made for children, who quickly outgrow the
devices. For a local boy who was born with only one
complete hand, the lab printed a functional prosthetic hand in plastic, using $20 worth of parts.
With so many possible applications, the field is
limited, at this point, by the dearth of designers
trained in CAD. SUNY New Paltz will fill the void.
ward the many folks in the community who have
appreciated the work that Tim and Dan have contributed?
During the consolidation debacle two years ago,
supervisor Zimet continually claimed she was being
attacked. This was quite unprofessional -- everything
should have been discussed and debated in the context of how the numbers were calculated. Rather
than answer the questions, Susan kept claiming
those questions were personal attacks against her.
Many people got caught up by that emotional appeal
and felt sympathetic. That tactic of stonewalling legitimate questions by claiming those questions were
instead deliberately posed to persecute her, worked
fairly well for the supervisor. That tactic created a
fog of distraction.
She is doing it again. For instance, the supervisor
has claimed again and again that the school board attacked her by the tone of their resolution and didn’t
bother to call her first. Never mind that the supervisor never bothered to call superintendent [Maria]
Rice or the president or vice president of the school
board.
Considering that by the time of the November 13
town board meeting, supervisor Zimet already was
able to give a pretty full description of the sewageplant plan (though not mentioning the site’s location), she certainly had plenty of time to make that
call. Creating more fog of distraction, the supervisor
attacks again and again what she calls the “vicious”
tone of the school board resolution, but in fact the
central issue of that resolution is not its tone but its
clear opposition to a sewage plant site next to the
high school.
The same goes for all the public sentiment against
the sewage plant site, which the supervisor has compared to a lynch mob, again fogging up the actual
issue of simple and clear opposition to the concept.
I present these three questions that are very real
amid this fog of distraction:
1. Will the town board remove from consideration
the idea of a sewage treatment site next to the high
school, as the board of education and many people
have requested?
2. Will the town board repair what was damaged
when they retaliated against Tim Rogers, by reversing course and reappointing him to the New Paltz
planning board?
3. Will the town board operate like a full board
again, stop ostracizing and withholding information
VIOLET SNOW
A commemorative model of Kingston High School.
A “robohand” functional prosthetic for a boy
with a missing hand. A plastic model of a recording
studio designed by an architect. Models of clamps
used to lock down helicopter blades for a Shokan
manufacturer.
These were among the items printed out on 3D
printers at SUNY New Paltz, where the digital fabrication lab at the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center is bringing together businesses and
engineering students to localize the rapidly growing
field of 3D printing.
Daniel Freedman, dean of SUNY’s School of Science and Engineering, described his program to
businesspeople at a networking breakfast in Kingston organized by Ulster County’s office of economic
development on January 21. Enrollments under
Freedman’s aegis have doubled in the past five
years, partly due to the inauguration of the 3D lab in
May 2013. Last fall, a department of mechanical engineering was added to the existing offerings. (“The
new major capitalizes on the college’s long-standing
ABET-accredited programs in electrical and computer engineering and complements New Paltz’s rapidly
evolving 3D printing initiative that supports additive
manufacturing,” the press release had stated at that
time.)
Through the lab, businesses give students projects
for the supervisor Tim deserved it because his very
act of disagreeing with her was an attack against her.
And for the supervisor, as per the last two town
board meetings, that same equation is being applied to Dan Torres. Where is the sympathy toward
these public officials? Where is the sympathy to-
to work on, supporting the education of engineers
who will become the employees companies need to
build their own 3D programs. A senior design project will allow students to implement designs that in
most cases are suggested by local industry. “This
technology is going to influence every field,” explained Freedman. “Our goal is to supply scientists
and engineers with access to equipment and access
to expert advice, as well as research leading to startups in the local area.”
Randal Richers, president of New York Drilling Services in Saugerties, attended the talk last Wednesday
in search of information that would help him get up
and running on the $4000 printer he’s ordered. He’s
researched enough to know that a 3D printer will enable him to design new drill parts more cheaply and
more quickly than having prototypes made up on a
milling machine. He’s undaunted by the fact that no
one at his company has expertise in computer-aided
design, or CAD, to facilitate use of the printer. “We’ll
find someone who can do it, or we’ll figure it out,”
he shrugged. “This is where the industry is going.”
Refrigerator-size printers