Skills advocate finds high-tech Northern solution to car trouble
Inuvik 3D printer gives vehicle wiper new life
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Friday, August 19, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When Jan Fullerton broke a part of the windshield wiper on her car at the end the last summer, she thought she had to do what many Northerners do: order a replacement from the south and pay the shipping.
Instead of ordering a new part for her car from the south, Jan Fullerton had a part for her Toyota Celica GT4 3D printed in Inuvik. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo |
"Then I was like, 'Wait a minute, we started funding 3D printers up in Inuvik,'" said Fullerton, who works at Skills Canada Northwest Territories.
She said with this in mind she called up Matthew Dares, manager of the technology development at the Aurora Research Institute, and asked about a replacement.
"He said, 'Send me up the broken part,'" Fullerton said. "I said, 'Do you want me to crazy glue it together first?' And he said, 'No, it's better if you leave it up to us to do that.'"
After doing all that, Fullerton said the teachers at the institute were able to tweak the online instructions they received from scanning the broken wiper and then print off a whole new part.
While the original part would have cost approximately $120, Fullerton said to print it only cost her a few dollars.
However, she said her daughter decided to get the part express mailed, which ended up costing Fullerton around $70. She also decided to donate to the institute, meaning at the end of the day she didn't actually save money.
Still, the part was a lot cheaper than Fullerton would have paid and the idea of being able to 3D print in the North excites her.
Her car is a Toyota Celica GT4 and was created for the World Rally Championship. Because of this, the automakers had to build enough road-ready versions to compete but didn't build additional vehicles.
She said parts for her car increase in costs as they become fewer because of this.
For Dares, this type of project is one of the best uses of 3D printing.
"Where it has value is when you need a part that doesn't exist or you need a part that is no longer is made," Dares said.
He said 3D printers can print in a wide variety of materials but the costs of modeling objects tends to make them not as economically viable as many may think.
Being able to scan Fullerton's broken wiper help reduce the amount of time spent on making a new one, he said.
And having to reverse engineer the piece made for a good demonstration for the students at the institute, meaning they weren't charging her for the time it took to tweak the model.
"I love being able to see an example where you can show kids an affordable technology that they're learning that's serving a real-world practice in a job they could do," he said.
Fullerton is happy with her new part, even though the bright red 3D printed part doesn't exactly match the rest of her car.
"I don't know why she hasn't called me and asked to have the other one replaced," Dares said.
