E3D+: Training material for developing 3D printers.

  • contact:

    Dr.-Ing. Volker Koch

  • funding:

    KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices
    Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

  • Partner:

    CETEM: Centro Tecnológico del Mueble y la Madera de la Región de Murcia, Spain

    STP: Štajerski tehnološki park d.o.o., Slovenia

    CEIPES: Centro Internazionale per la Promozione dell Educazione e lo Sviluppo, Italy

  • startdate:

    01.12.2015

  • enddate:

    30.11.2017

The field of Vocational education and training (VET)  has been recognized as one of the key drivers within the EU2020 Strategy to overcome the socioeconomic, to boost growth and jobs and to foster equity and inclusion. Moreover, there is a need to provide youth organizations and youth workers with training and cooperation opportunities, to develop their professional skills and the European dimension of youth work. According to most analysts, the 3-D printing market is expected to grow by leaps and bounds over the coming years. Experts says that the worldwide shipments of 3-D printers in 2015 will more than double from 2014. Up from 108,151 units in 2014, analysts forecasts shipments of 3-D printers to double every year for a few years, reaching 2.3 million units by 2018. Staggering as the forecast is, they says even those numbers will be a small fraction of the total potential market. End-user spending on material extrusion technology alone is expected to increase from US$789 million in 2015 to US$1.6 billion in 2018. According to a forecast by Canalys, the size of the 3-D printing market including printers, materials and services is expected to rise from US$2.5 billion in 2013 to US$16.2 billion by 2018, a CAGR of over 45%. Advances in technology are yielding faster print times and enabling objects to be printed in greater combinations of materials, colors and finishes. Crucially, prices are also falling, making the technology an increasingly feasible option for a broad variety of enterprise and consumer uses, restricted only by computer aided design competencies and printer availability – both of which are set to improve significantly. 3D printing has become an established technology for producing prototypes and concept models of all manner of products. But as it matures, there is clear and substantial potential across numerous sectors, such as engineering and architecture, aerospace and defense, and medical (particularly in the fabrication of custom prosthetics), for 3D printing to have a dramatic impact within five years. The main factors affecting competitiveness in the upstream portion of the value chain include the raw materials availability, investment in tangible goods and skilled labour. Regarding this last factor, workers’ qualifications remain one of the crucial points in the innovation and 3D printing industries. To boost competences and skills requires initiatives addressing training to keep workers updated and to enable them to acquire new competences in line with new technologies and develop new initiatives to promote the anticipation of future skills needs and foster collaboration among industry, social partners and education. The main objective of this project is to address the need to feed an industry that is in high growth as is the 3d printing of its"target group",students, users, experts and professionals of current sectors, by developing a thorough VET tool that provides new skills in the "learning pillars" and "promoting entrepreneurship".

E3D+