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CLEARFIELD — Weber State University is now using an advanced type of 3D printer. It's so rare and new that there are only a few of them west of the Mississippi.
It uses composite materials in a way that has the attention of aerospace companies and Hill Air Force Base.
Devin Young, a grant writing and research specialist at Weber State University's Miller Advanced Research and Solutions Center, explains how it all works.
"You print on sheets of randomly oriented, in this case, carbon fibers," he said. "And you get these intricate parts of a fully composite component that's 3D-printed."
The whole purpose of this center is to be able to partner with companies in the aerospace industry and Hill Air Force Base. And this printer, because no one else in Utah has it, allows them one more way to do that.
"We're trying to help establish what the uses of this are," Young said. "And how we can push the technology. If we can find new materials, new applications, new users and things like that."
With aerospace companies coming to them already, it's bringing important opportunities to students like Cage Vigil.
"You know, this is considered pretty modern as far as manufacturing processes go," Vigil said. "So, you know, this could be considered like working at the forefront of the process."
Weber State got this $250,000 printer thanks in large part to a grant. Young says the number of possibilities to come out of it are still to be determined.
"It's a fairly new field where we'll be able to examine this technology and help push it forward," he said.
