Sean Petit loves to figure out what makes things tick. “I've always been interested in the process of mechanical design... how if one part moves, it makes another part move, and so on throughout the whole mechanism,” he says.

So when Sean retired from the Army after a 20-year career, he decided to enroll in the Mechanical Design Technology program at Fox Valley Technical College.

Mechanical design is the process of creating, developing and manufacturing new products and machinery. It’s problem-solving 101 and our students have a front-row seat to finding solutions, creating prototypes and testing their ideas.

Instructors provide students with the blueprint—what the part should look like and how it should act—and students take it from there. “We use software to design machine parts, then we put them together into an assembly to see how the assembly is going to work,” Sean explains. “We see how all the parts work together.”

And on the overall coolness-factor scale, the tools available to Mechanical Design students arguably top the list.

The tools of their trade include software programs like AutoCAD, SolidWorks and CATIA, but also 3D printers—11 of them, to be exact. The printers span a variety of technologies allowing students to create prototypes to evaluate design decisions and are housed in the Mechanical Design Fab Lab (or fabrication laboratory) at the Appleton campus.

3D printing technology simplifies the creation of prototypes so designers and students can have a high-fidelity, functional part within hours at a fraction of the cost of a traditional prototype.

—Ken Thompson, Mechanical Design Technology Department Chair

“It can be difficult to evaluate design decisions with a CAD model alone,” explains Ken Thompson, department chair for the Mechanical Design program. “Producing a single part or assembly with traditional materials and techniques is expensive and time-consuming, so designers are sometimes hesitant to experiment with prototypes. 3D printing technology simplifies the creation of prototypes so designers and students can have a high-fidelity, functional part within hours at a fraction of the cost of a traditional prototype—ultimately providing a quicker solution.”

Sean also built his own 3D printer as part of an elective class and loves using it to create new objects. “It’s really enjoyable seeing it come together, printing the filament layer by layer,” he says.