How to Build a Working Replica Jet Engine With a 3D Printer

University of Virginia students built a quarter scale replica of a Rolls-Royce jet engine using 3D printing. The engine works — it spins, it whirs! It’s plastic.

The article about this originally appeared in Popular Mechanics, and can be read online here.

I’ve seen many posts online about 3D printing — some consider it a hoax and question the veracity of videos and articles that document it; some think these videos and stories are a conspiracy. While I believe 3D printing exists and works, I do find it unbelievable, as well as incredible and wonderfully magic. What a future awaits us!

3-D Printer Prints a Crescent Wrench!

Watch this video to see an alternate printing future:

Good Luck, Virginians, at SkillsUSA National Competition!

The Virginia Printing Foundation sends best wishes for success to all Virginia’s competitors at next week’s SkillsUSA National Championships!

Special notice to the following competitors (and to their wonderful teachers) who won first place in Virginia’s contests, and who will represent their schools and state at Nationals:

• Nicholas Wilfong, Advertising Design Contest Winner, Advanced Technology Center, Instructor Lee Troxell
• Meghan Kube, Graphic Communications Contest Winner, North Stafford High School, Instructor Susan Caldwell
• Darrell Cox, Screen Printing Technology Contest Winner, Richmond Technical Center, Instructor Karen Reitz

The Virginia Printing Foundation is especially proud to support the Graphic Communications contest winner and instructor with travel expenses of $1250 to help with that long trip to Kansas City.

Good luck, all! You’ve already shown you have talent, skills, and smarts!

Virginia Printing Foundation awards 2011 scholarships

The Virginia Printing Foundation is pleased to announce the following scholarship awards for 2011:

Student Scholarship Winners: Three students have been awarded scholarships. Jeremy Hall has been awarded $1000 toward his college education. A student at CS Monroe Technology Center and Loudoun Valley High School, Jeremy plans to study Communication Design at NVCC in the fall. Eugene Overton has also been awarded $1000. Eugene is a student at CS Monroe Technology Center and Heritage High School. Eugene will attend NVCC in the fall and plans to pursue a degree in Communication Design. Both Jeremy and Eugene are students of Pam Smith. The third scholarship winner is Meghan Kube. Meghan is a student at North Stafford High School, where she studies with Susan Caldwell. Meghan will use her scholarship, also $1000, to attend NVCC this fall. Meghan will also be representing Virginia at the SkillsUSA National Graphic Communications competition in Kansas City later this month.

The student scholarships are funded by the Virginia Printing Foundation.

Educator Scholarship Winner: These scholarships are funded by Progress Printing, Lynchburg, Virginia, and Worth Higgins Associates, Richmond, Virginia. For 2011, the Virginia Printing Foundation has awarded both of these scholarships to one recipient, Pam Smith, in the total amount of $1500:

The Progress Printing Education Scholarship

and

The E. Worth Higgins, Jr., Print Educators’ Scholarship

Pam Smith, Graphics Communications Instructor, Monroe Technology Center, will use her scholarship for further education classes toward her Associate in Printing Management, and to buy software and computer equipment for her classroom.

Virginia Printing Foundation Awards CS Monroe Technology Center’s Winning Entry

The 2011 Best in Print (BIP) School Competition winners were announced at the Printing Industries of Virginia’s annual banquet on March 26, 2011, in Virginia Beach. CS Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg won the award for the best single entry, a calendar.

The BIP School Competition is sponsored by the Virginia Printing Foundation (VPF), which awards $200 to the winner. Pam Smith (pictured right, receiving award from Ron Hottle, Chairman, VPF) is the instructor at CS Monroe, and was VPF’s guest at the banquet. Pam Smith plans to treat her students to a “stress-free” dinner to celebrate their achievements with the prize money.

Congratulations to all our winning high school programs:

• CS Monroe Technology Center, Leesburg, VA, Pam Smith, Instructor
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center, Spotsylvania, VA, Mike Fox, Instructor
• Wise County Career-Technical Center, Wise, VA, David Kindle, Instructor

The judges awarded the following First Place and Best Program categories to CS Monroe, in addition to the Best in Show:

• First Place: CS Monroe Technology Center for Booklet
• Best Program (most overall points): CS Monroe Technology Center

Awards of Excellence were given for the following entries:

• Wise County Career-Technical Center for Letterhead
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center for Banner/wide format
• Spotsylvania Career & Technical Center for Booklet
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Mug
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Tee Shirt
• CS Monroe Technology Center for Flier

3-D Printers Make Living Body Parts

“Living body parts, hot off the printer” is the headline of an article by Bonnie Berkowitz in the Washington Post, May 10, 2011. The article details how scientists are making living tissue with three-dimensional printers. These machines work in similar ways to ordinary desktop printers — the first bioprinters were jury-rigged desktop inkjet printers — but they stack up layers of living material rather than ink. Dentists, jewelers, machinists, and even chocolatiers have been using this technology for almost 20 years.

While this technology is years, and perhaps decades, away from producing complex organs, scientists have already printed skin and vertebral disks, and actually placed them into living (not human) bodies.

Anticipated future uses for bioprinting include drug and clinical trial testing that would eliminate the drawn-out, trial-and-error process involving humans.

To read the full article, click here.

Chowan University Graphics Summer Camp June 19-24, 2011

Chowan University’s 16th Graphics Summer Camp will take place June 19 – 24, 2011. The total cost for the week is only $100. This is a wonderful experience for high school seniors and juniors who have shown interest or potential for the graphics industry.

For more information or to register, visit Chowan’s