It's not quite the Star Trek replicator, but the new 3-D printer used by JCCC's drafting students is impressive.

The drafting program's rapid prototype machine gives advanced drafting students an opportunity to make models from 3-D computer-aided designs and beginning drafting students a way to visualize a 3-D design problem more clearly.

Instead of toner, the rapid prototype machine uses a cartridge filled with a spool of plastic, which is heated to a temperature of 572 degrees F and applied to a series of .007 or .010 layers until the 3-D model is built according to a computer-aided drafting (CAD) design.

To the unschooled eye, it appears as easy as setting controls for resolution, orientation, interior makeup (solid or honeycomb) and number of copies and then hitting "print." Then, appearing out of seemingly nothingness, comes a plastic model. The technically savvy, however, know that inside the printer a CAD file interfaces with a stereolithography file format in order to fabricate the curves and geometry of a physical object.

The process is fun to watch, although "rapid" is a relative term. A special print head sweeps across a plastic support plate, applying layer after layer of heated plastic following CAD specifications. Filler material is applied to negative space and dissolved by immersion in a chemical bath after part fabrication. Objects created in the 3-D printer take from two to 60-plus hours to complete.

According to Tom Hughes, drafting professor/chair, drafting models were traditionally created by hand in a shop. Time, cost and ease of use are improved with the 3-D printer. Hughes says the rapid prototyping has been available in the industry for years, used for creating manufactured parts - everything from industrial to fine arts. As the 3-D printers became more affordable, JCCC was able to purchase one so drafting students can see their projects emerge from the 2-D printed page to physical models.

"The impact on our students is that the models clearly illustrate what they are attempting to draw," Hughes said. "Students learn to draft with greater confidence."

Students in the CAD-3-D and Mechanical Desktop: Inventor classes are encouraged to produce one 3-D model at the end of the semester. Faculty use the model to demonstrate objects and cutaway slices for entry-level classes.

Damon Feureborn, assistant professor, drafting, says the 3-D printer has increased student interest in the drafting program.

"The rapid prototype printer can do some pretty complex models with moving and mating parts, things that would be difficult to make in a shop," Feureborn said.