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New technology at high school lets ‘imaginations come to life’

By Staff | Sep 2, 2014

photo by NICKOLETTE JONES/The Luminary Mark Kreisher, technology teacher at Muncy High School shows the new 3-D printer with the robotic hand that senior Sam Cutler created.

MUNCY – Computers quietly hum their greetings when walking into the classroom of Mark Kreisher, a teacher of technology at Muncy High School. The bittersweet smell of wood chippings, saws and tools of many kinds, silently rest as they yearn to steadily ease into the knotted skin of wood. However, there is a new member of the technology family within the two rooms of tools and computers, a new type of printer. A 3-D printer has arrived, and is ready to serve students for the upcoming years at Muncy High School.

“You can create files on the software and export them, and print 3-D prints from the files,” Kreisher explained. “You can also save your files in a card if you can’t save it on a computer.” This specific 3-D printer heats up to 230 degrees Celsius as a motor pushes the filaments through, and lays them down on the platform.

“It works like a hot glue gun,” Kreisher explained as he held up the small filaments, which look like weed-whacker string. There are different colors of filaments as well yellow, blue, white, and even glow in the dark.

The many objects that can be made with the new 3-D printer are practically endless. “The only restriction is the build area,” Kreisher smiled. One student, who will be a senior this year, Sam Cutler, created a robotic hand. “He was very motivated, and worked on it endlessly,” Kreisher proudly explained. In order to create it, they needed to print “all individual parts, and put it all together in the end.”

“I am absolutely excited about this printer,” Kreisher nearly laughed.”Students will be designing and printing in 3-D for CAD and other classes.” The new 3-D printer will allow students to finally let their imaginations come to life; furthermore, it will introduce the students to a whole new level of technology one that is currently being used to even save lives.” Kreisher explained that large 3-D printers are being used to scan a person’s hip or knee, so doctors can create a hip or knee replacement for that specific person. “They’re even using 3-D printers for bone marrow,” Kreisher said.

Muncy High School welcomes the new 3-D printer to its technology class and Kreisher, himself wrote a grant to secure the funding commented Dr. Portia Brant, School Superintendent. “It’s very exciting!” With endless possibilities now in the hands of the students of Muncy High School, it’s almost impossible to predict what concrete objects of imagination the new printer will create.