Kitronik, a leading provider of electronic project kits and educational resources to schools, is pleased to announce the online publication of the latest in its series of free 3D printing resources for schools and home users. The project is the latest in free 3D printing resources from Kitronik and enables students and home users to fuse together 3D printing and electronics.
Kitronik was founded in 2005, and believes that electronics should be accessible to everyone. In addition to basic electronic kits, Kitronik offer a number of products for those wanting to customize their electronics. The company is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of educational e-textiles kits.
The company have previously released resources and materials to support the creation of 3D printed memory stick cases. This was an excellent way to introduce teachers and students to 3D printers and CAD software because of the simplicity (due to size) and how quickly they could be printed. The amplifier and speaker case projects are designed to be a bit more challenging, and will further the already developing skills of users.
Kitronik Co-Founder Kevin Spurr comments:
“We wanted to provide free resources for Design and Technology teachers and home users who were looking to develop their 3D printing and CAD software skills. We thought that our amplifier and speaker kits were perfectly suited to 3D printing and provided an ideal ‘next step’ project following on from the 3D printed memory stick cases. The project will enable people to produce something they can use everyday and enable them to integrate electronics in their 3D printing projects. This will be particularly relevant for Design and Technology teachers, as it has the potential to really grab the attention of students.”
“Speaker cases are a great size to still print relatively quickly, but also allow for more detailed exploration in the design and assembly of multiple parts. The project mainly focuses on demonstrating a variety of methods of fixing cases together, as well as experimenting with form and mixing materials, such as combining laser cutting and 3D printing. The designs have been kept relatively simple consisting of just a few parts each. Some cases are more experimental with electronics, using mechanical aspects of the design to control volume and even the brightness of LEDs.”
Every Kitronik kit has an accompanying teaching resource pack, allowing students to not only build the kit, but to find out how it works.
The full range of necessary resources can be found on the Kitronik website.
The resources have been designed using Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk 3DS Max. This software is free for educational users and has been test printed on a Robox 3D Printer.
This exciting new project provides teachers, students and home users with the downloadable files and information needed to 3D print their own amplifier and speaker cases. It works in conjunction with Kitronik’s Mono and Stereo Amplifier module kits which enables makers to create a unique and customizable 3D printing project, bringing together 3D printing and electronics.
