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Printing Solutions: Alberta's Next-Gen Innovators Tackle Manufacturing Challenges
57 Plays6 months ago
The Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network (AAMN) Hack2025 podcast highlights an innovative hackathon where students collaborated with industry partners to solve real-world manufacturing challenges using additive manufacturing. Students designed custom jigs and fixtures for companies, demonstrating the power of cross-disciplinary problem-solving and showcasing Alberta's emerging advanced manufacturing talent. The discussion explores how these collaborative projects bridge education and industry, fostering skills development and technological innovation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network and Hackathon 2025
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome everybody to another podcast from the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network. I'm Shorty, chair of the AAMN and also proud to be a participant in our recent 2025 hackathon hosted at WMTS and the Smart MTX here in Edmonton.
00:00:30
Speaker
So this year's challenge is all about jigs and fixtures. We've got some students and manufacturers to collaborate on real world production problems using additive manufacturing. For most of you, that's 3D printing.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, we're we're getting there. we're We're bringing these sessions on as as much as possible to educate everybody so that you too will learn what additive manufacturing is and isn't, and maybe what 3D printing is and isn't.
00:00:57
Speaker
Lots of fun. So these real-world examples of what we're able to do with additive manufacturing in industry um has been such an eye-opener for people that want to learn about additive manufacturing, 3D printing, design, 3D CAD, all these really, really cool things. So we're going to dig into this and how this hackathon um has helped bring Alberta manufacturing community together.
00:01:23
Speaker
um I've got two wonderful hosts guests today, not hosts. like Maybe they will host so after this. Who knows? But we'll see. So we have Lorne Crystal from... am I saying that right, Lorne?
00:01:34
Speaker
Yes. This is why I usually get you guys to introduce yourselves because you know each other better than
Indoorate Alloys' Shift Towards Additive Manufacturing
00:01:40
Speaker
I do. So I'm just going to say we have Tanya and we have Lorne.
00:01:44
Speaker
And since Lorne's already started, I'll let Lorne introduce himself. Thank you, Lorne. Sorry. No problem. Yeah. Hi. My name is Lorne Christel and I am the... general manager of Indoorate Alloys, which is a small company in Edmonton.
00:02:01
Speaker
And we are traditionally a thermal spray equipment and consumables supplier to the traditionally, again, oil and gas market in Alberta and Western Canada.
00:02:14
Speaker
And um A few years ago, we decided that another great opportunity would be to move into the additive manufacturing market because, again, they're traditionally powders and wires and whatnot. So
Real-World Challenges in Manufacturing and Hackathon's Educational Purpose
00:02:30
Speaker
what better place to put some effort? And in 2021, we hired a fellow PhD who now works in Ottawa for us, and he is heading I'm the Associate Vice President of Applied Research at RDP and I support all of the applied research that happens at the institution.
00:02:58
Speaker
I'm really interested in additive manufacturing as part of our focus area in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing through our Center for Innovation in Manufacturing, which is a technology access center.
00:03:23
Speaker
Love it. Well, looks like we've got somebody working in the background. They are probably the ones that are helping us pay the bills today. um well Let's just talk a little bit more about why we actually created the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network Hackathon.
00:03:38
Speaker
um So as a network, we wanted to bring
Focus on Jigs and Fixtures for Alberta Manufacturers
00:03:40
Speaker
that real-world manufacturing challenge into a space where students, educators, companies could all work together on a practical,
00:03:49
Speaker
impactful problem. So I was actually one of our sponsors and I don't want to toot our own horn, but our student actually won the entire thing. So That was great from a student perspective, but more importantly, it's actually now saving us about five minutes per unit as we built. So that that that project not only is a winner from from the challenge, but it's also winning.
00:04:17
Speaker
um We're helping use that technology to win in our business. So it's great. um So maybe we'll talk a little bit about um the technical aspect those jigs and fixes. why we decided to start the hackathon as part of the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network was to really bring contextual hands-on learning to this problem.
00:04:39
Speaker
So we have a number of different areas of focus in the AAMN, one of which is to you know know who's all in our network, the other is what is all the equipment around,
00:04:50
Speaker
And the third one was really getting people to actually practice utilizing the skills of design for additive. What are the different case studies and understanding when you would select additive manufacturing as a tool and when you would.
00:05:06
Speaker
ah So this is our third hackathon that we've done. And I want to give a shout out to Prairie's Can for their funding and support for doing this this hackathon. This one was a little bit different in that we had ah projects that were that came directly from our industry connections that were around jigs and fixtures.
The Role of Industry Collaboration and Student Engagement
00:05:25
Speaker
And we selected jigs and fixtures ah because it is something that Alberta manufacturers need every single day. So it was a really accessible problem. Absolutely, we could have done something super complex in in aviation or heat exchanger, but we wanted to really build ah understanding from a place where you know anybody in Alberta could understand how to really utilize this technology.
00:05:50
Speaker
ah So we went out to all of our connections and we found ah industries that were willing to submit a project, which included a problem they had every day. So this wasn't a made up problem. And they ah so provided a little description and an actual drawing case.
00:06:08
Speaker
And then we went out and asked students from around Alberta, as well as across the country. ah There were certainly more in Alberta. ah to put themselves in teams to be able to address those challenges, get them designed, printed, and then we presented them at the WMTS Smart MTX conference in early April of 2025.
00:06:31
Speaker
ah So that was one of our objectives there. So I'm going to pass it back to my industry friends on, again, why are jigs and fixtures an important piece that you guys would care about?
00:06:45
Speaker
Thank
00:06:52
Speaker
Absolutely, and I i accidentally muted Lauren, so please, Lauren, unmute yourself. It's not personal, I promise. um Well, from our from our perspective, um we use jigs and fixtures every day, so it's a way for us to take a process and improve that process. So we always want to look for fast, quick wins.
00:07:14
Speaker
And I think the most important thing that Tanya said was we want to fail fast and fail often. So that's the really cool part about AM. m is the ability to be able to have something in your hand to test it out.
00:07:26
Speaker
And then what I like to do is either drive it over with a car or throw it against the wall and see if it's still intact. um Lauren, it sounds like you had a um a really good um sort of hands-on um experience with a lot of the students as they were presenting at the show.
00:07:44
Speaker
And then you also got to spend quite a bit of time um walking the show and seeing how um the audience was able to get some impact on on this, you know, on the actual thing that we did and the stories that the students told. So if you don't mind giving us little bit of a perspective so I can stop talking.
00:08:06
Speaker
Sure, yeah, let me just back up. um This was my first
Student Experience and Career Opportunities Through Hackathon
00:08:10
Speaker
hackathon as I'm a new member of the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network. And ah it was, for me, particularly in interesting just to ah see how engaged the students were with their projects.
00:08:25
Speaker
And also given the very limited time that they were given, to solve these ah key issues or these these problems that are our industry partners we were seeing every day.
00:08:40
Speaker
um It was really interesting to see how quickly they can um you know scale up a product using additive manufacturing. And ah yeah, it was very impressive just to see how engaged they were.
00:08:55
Speaker
And um another little point, there was a young lady in the audience who was an engineering student and she was overwhelmed with joy that we would actually have something like this happening and is very interested in um being part of the next one.
00:09:14
Speaker
And yeah, so it was just really interesting from that perspective. And um again, just emphasizing the limited time and what they achieved, it was very, very impressive.
00:09:27
Speaker
yeah it's It's really shocking. and it's um so ah It's so lovely to watch. um you know when When people come together, they they have some of the skills. you know They've learned a little bit to be dangerous, but this gives them an opportunity to get to be dangerous, I guess, in in a controlled environment, which is nice. So the fail fast, fail often is is awesome. And having um yeah the the institutions like the RDP, and like your Nate and Sait, that are more of a hands-on practical approach to that and that individual that you mentioned, the university-educated engineer. So being able to bring
00:10:09
Speaker
you know, where the rubber hits the road all the way through to the, dare I say it, the White Ivory Tower. um we're getting We're getting more and more stuff done, which is kind of nice, and it's a really cool way to collaborate.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, I also just want to suggest that, you know, as as industry, we and if we're faced with problems every day, we look at them through our own eyes.
00:10:31
Speaker
And engaging these students, they look at them through different eyes with different ah perspectives. and i think that brings a lot to the solutions table. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as ah as a company that sponsors and more and more of these types of projects, um you know we we get to give back to to the community, but we learn so much from it as well. A lot of these chances of us being able to interact with some students before they graduate, before they're looking
Technical Challenge: Prototyping and Design Optimization
00:11:00
Speaker
for jobs, it's kind of like a ah bit of an interview process, if you will. You can kind of see you know who's going to be a but good potential candidate. So
00:11:09
Speaker
I know I i i i ah would want more and more folks to get involved, you know, from a company perspective, you know, it's it's good to be a part of these. And then from a a student perspective, you're going to be learning some things that you don't necessarily get to learn at school. So it's very cool. And you never know who's in the audience. I mean, we You've got Lorne walking through with a camera and you know he's he's completely changed his company. It's really cool to see what you've done in the AM space. And and I'm sure you've learned a lot by being at the shows too. So let's ah let's talk a little bit about the actual problem that the students were given. So they were submitted a challenge. um
00:11:55
Speaker
And how did that get disseminated? How did the the students interpret that? I'm not sure. I'll leave it out Tonya and Lauren and you guys flat over it. And they were given the criteria in terms of when it needed to be delivered by. And we had a team at RDP that would connect in with the students regularly to make sure that they were on track. So they had less than 30 days to get that done. And Certainly hackathons are a lot faster, but it was in March just when students are getting ready to get ready for exams. So we took that into consideration.
00:12:31
Speaker
But i why don't we pause here and listen to the students' stories and how they ah solved their what their problems were and how they solved them. Great idea. Thanks, Tanya.
00:12:42
Speaker
ah Live today, welcome for those of you who will join us virtually after. A number of students, we have... We have Caleb Dumont, we have Sam Anderson, we have Hannah, we have Arment and all people that presented at our hackathon two weeks ago, um April 9th through 11th at the Edmonton Expo Centre. So, real excited to have them here today to talk about their solutions and how they've been able to help industry.
00:13:11
Speaker
And we also have a couple other guests as well. We have Tanya, Dr. Tanya Wolfe from here at Red Deer Polytechnic and
Fostering Innovation and Addressing Regional Needs
00:13:20
Speaker
Dipjone Sen, who is the director of the SimTAC.
00:13:23
Speaker
So um I'm going to pass this over to to Tanya and she's going to talk, ah introduce Dipjone and talk a little bit about what we've been doing at the Simtac and kind of a little bit about the hackathon and the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network and their role in the hackathon and the event that we've put on.
00:13:42
Speaker
um Take it away, Tanya. yeah Thanks, james David. And hi, students. I'm sorry I didn't get to see you at Smart MTX. This is such a ah big part of the add Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network.
00:13:55
Speaker
So I'm really excited today to hear about what you've ah done. So the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network was conceived in the you know mid 2010s.
00:14:09
Speaker
um So yes, almost 10 years ago, actually, ah in really looking around Alberta and knowing that this technology was was really utilized heavily in the US and Europe, but there wasn't as much happening specifically in Alberta.
00:14:24
Speaker
And when think about additive manufacturing, we know that it's really great for ah one-off parts, things that have inherent complexities, um um multiple features, and looking at some of the work that we do with some of our parts, specifically in in oil and gas and and other manufacturing.
00:14:47
Speaker
ah Come on, as that is real match. But ah real match ah but you know, some of the pieces that we saw was that there was not regulations around pressure. And we really, frankly, weren't designing for additive manufacturing.
00:15:01
Speaker
ah So we were still designing using normal design methodologies. And we didn't really have ah enough mindset in terms of thinking about what do I want to design and how, and that additive manufacturing could be one of those tools to do that.
00:15:17
Speaker
So we brought together a group of industry, academics and supporting organizations to start tackling how do we build better? How do we come up with different solutions that that ah that can really benefit and grow Alberta's um technical expertise in in manufacturing?
00:15:36
Speaker
ah specific to some of the really unique pieces that we build here, which is why we see such a large hub of large-scale metal additive manufacturing happening in Alberta, as well as some other novel materials coming out in terms of wear materials that are specific to to what we're doing here.
00:15:54
Speaker
So we've gone through a few strategic plan or overhauls and reviews ah over the years and really really honed into some really key factors that will that the advisory board and the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network have really focused on. one is um really knowing where that ah novel equipment is to be able to utilize that, whether that's in a post-secondary or in industry or a research institution, but really knowing what is out there so that we can support that industry growth and de-risking that technology.
00:16:31
Speaker
um The other piece is ah looking for stories and sharing that stories because, you know, Albertans
Importance of Collaboration in Design for Additive Manufacturing
00:16:40
Speaker
are really great at being the second person to do things, um but there's a lot of stories out there about being the first ah to do that. So how do we share those stories?
00:16:49
Speaker
ah But also what are those limitations? And that's some of the work that we've been doing ah with ABSA and some leading experts in terms of regulatory needs to be able to adopt these processes specifically to some of our pressure containing work and how can we design appropriately knowing that that is a limitation.
00:17:12
Speaker
And the third thing, which brings us here today, ah is ah the training and ah direct use case um environment. And we thought hackathons were ah really great way to be able to to develop those skills and connect um engineers and technical people with other solution providers.
00:17:33
Speaker
And this is our third hackathon. So every year we'd like to do it a little bit differently, but it still comes has two main elements. And one is that there's a real problem that we need to solve. And there's a business that is willing to say, here's my design, here's my challenge.
00:17:48
Speaker
And then we bring together a team to be able to solve it. And this year we brought together a group of of students to be able to showcase that to not only support those companies, but allow the students to gain other skills that will increase their ability to be hired and showcase the talent that we have here in Alberta.
00:18:09
Speaker
But i I also suspect that we're still not doing a lot of design for additive manufacturing in our curriculum. And this gives you another avenue to be able to test out those designs and work with companies on how to adopt those technologies.
00:18:25
Speaker
So that's where we are with that. And our partnership with the MeCluster really enables those two connections to be brought together. So that's why where we've come together in these aspects to find those manufacturers that are really interested in the technology, but might not have the time or the skill set to be able to do that. But if we put together these projects,
00:18:47
Speaker
and bring together ah those that are interested in solving it, then we can start meeting that that third piece. So thank you, David, for continuing to support the AMN and the hackathon and providing us a spot in Smart MTX to share that work.
00:19:02
Speaker
It's a preliminary design. um This design essentially was to show that focal length. So we calculated what the distance to the focal points would be in order to properly calibrate the camera and we came up with a very simple um option but then we realized we needed some modifications we needed to increase structural strength and we also just needed to make sure it was as lightweight as possible and next slide
00:19:32
Speaker
philip can go the next slide yes sure so we turned to um ntop which is a popular topology optimization um software and top basically does different forms of um design design optimization to lattice structures and so on.
00:19:50
Speaker
We focus on topological optimization aspect of it in order to minimize the weight while ensuring a level of strength is maintained in the parts. We also wanted to ensure
Showcasing Student Projects and Design Iterations
00:20:00
Speaker
that there was a minimizing the weight was a good material distribution so that we then the part, it doesn't start to deflect at any point.
00:20:08
Speaker
And of course, i'm also optimizing for 3D printing because ENTOP has some of those parameters. Next slide.
00:20:21
Speaker
Okay, so in order to do the project optimization, we had to split the part into two portions, the preserved geometry and the analyzed geometry. So the preserved geometry essentially the part which we mounted on the camera. This part didn't um directly have contributed the calibration that wanted to do, but the analyzed geometry was then the point that I would have that focal length.
00:20:44
Speaker
So we then simulated worst case scenario loading in the failure loading where the operator exerts some sort of force on the part up to 15 newtons, which we found from research done on like handling of human handling of different materials. So we calculated 15 units as an estimated force.
00:21:07
Speaker
And um what we were able to find is the priority for us was maintaining amount of strength and deflection, minimum deflection, so that the part doesn't start to change um the focal point and start giving a wrong readings later down the line after a couple of uses.
00:21:26
Speaker
We chose the material nylon 12. This material was chosen for multiple reasons, including the fact that it has high impact um resistance, so it wouldn't deflect in a situation where it wouldn't deflect as easily as other plastics would in a situation where it is being handled.
00:21:45
Speaker
um'm Next slide, please.
00:21:49
Speaker
Okay, so we ran our first situation. This first situation had mounting plate, mounting area, and the analyzed area and we ran into project optimization study on it. We got a safety factor of 6.34 based on the stress versus the used strength of nylon. So we realized that safety factor was not going to be an issue.
00:22:09
Speaker
What we were aimed and what we did aim to do is reduce the relative density, which is essentially the amount of mass with respect to the original mass. um And then also minimize the amount of deflection. So you can see here the deflection is 1.02.
00:22:24
Speaker
So we set a target for ourselves of 0.5 millimeters. And so wanted to keep minimizing that. Another thing we noticed from this situation was that the person that is mounting this plate on the camera would need to use um screws. And then maybe since it's one where there is sputter from the welding process that is going on, this would affect the plastic and have some other issues.
00:22:49
Speaker
So the person would need to mount it. So we realized the screw method would be um very inefficient, so we decided to modify that further. um Next slide. So we came up with the next situation, which was a sliding fit where we used the T slots to create um a sort of assembly where the person that is the operator could easily slide in this jig.
00:23:16
Speaker
jig do the calibration and slide it off. So it be created with the tolerance of 0.3 clearance gap so that will have a loose fit. So it doesn't also, because if it's sliding it off, it would also shift the calibration of the camera that has already been calibrated. So it will have a very loose fit there as well.
00:23:37
Speaker
um Next slide.
00:23:42
Speaker
So this was the second iteration. We saw the maximum displacement reduced to 0.68 after making some other changes as well. And then our final iteration, which is on the next slide, iteration three, we saw um by adding an outer frame to protect the jig, we had minimum maximum displacement that we were able to obtain ourselves, which was 0.3 millimeters. So at this point, we realized we were at um a good point in terms of design iteration.
00:24:13
Speaker
So for the next slide, um We manufactured it at Syntac at Red Deer. We used SLS to manufacture it. And the reason for SLS is because um it has very good detail. So it was able to capture the geometry that we obtained, um the organic looking geometry that we obtained from anthropology.
00:24:34
Speaker
It also does not need support structures. And finally, it has ah better material pool than some other technologies um like every DM that we consider, but given that we can easily print nylon 12 with SLS.
00:24:48
Speaker
So that made it ideal for this application.
00:24:53
Speaker
All right. Thanks, Alex. Alex, I'll take over again here. So we were able to ah get our prototype in time before the actual hackathon on the 11th. So we were able to mount it to our camera here at InnoTech and actually go through the process of setting up the camera and calibrating it.
00:25:11
Speaker
um We found that it was actually pretty successful. The calibration process only took about five minutes. So um it was just a matter of putting on the screws, lining it up, and checking back on the thermal monitor.
00:25:26
Speaker
So you can see um on the monitor, there's actually a screenshot here. I'll use my laser pointer.
00:25:34
Speaker
um or You can see ah the actual point of the the jig here pointed directly near the wire tip. um You'll see there's also some a business card or a card rather with some writing here. We use this to ensure that the camera is in focus.
00:25:53
Speaker
if we are able to successfully read the words on this card and then that means the process was successful and the camera is properly calibrated.
00:26:04
Speaker
so So you can see here in this picture that it's well aligned and also in focus. So um yeah, one thing we thought was pretty neat with our slide on design was that we are also able to do some more rapid prototyping if we want.
00:26:21
Speaker
um Whereas we can keep the mounting bracket part of the design and simply just do some new adjustments on the jig part of the design. And i actually have the prototype in front of me here.
00:26:35
Speaker
So um we actually are thinking of possibly doing some ah some adjustments to the jig and possibly just make it a little more pointy and precise on the end.
00:26:46
Speaker
So that's something I'll probably be working on over the over this week. So um that's a pretty neat advantage that we found here is that, yeah, we can just simply keep this part mounted on the camera and keep adjusting this part of the design accordingly.
00:27:04
Speaker
um I did, yeah. So I'll give a quick introduction. My name is Samuel Anderson. I am a third year mechanical engineering student currently attending U of A. I did the transfer program from RDP.
00:27:17
Speaker
I'm currently working at s Simtac and my project was the Fepcin jig and I'll share it over. So the project I got to work on was with Karma Medical Products or CARMED for short.
00:27:31
Speaker
So right now they're currently making a wrist rehabilitation device. It's called the Fepcin. They've been working through different stages in prototyping and they've recently moved to injection molding these three different parts. um And right now they require post-process drilling. So after injection molding to actually mount the jig or the, the,
00:27:54
Speaker
device together, they're needing these holes drilled um and they're currently using these handmade metal plates. um Unfortunately, these are not the most accurate and consistent pieces. And then hand drilling creates other potential issues like alignment and spacing and just overall wear by doing it by hand.
00:28:17
Speaker
um So the task for this was to create a jig which can replace these metal plates and be using a drill press. Right. So it needs to be able to clamp in a drill press.
00:28:28
Speaker
It needs to have drill bushings so it can be repeatedly used over and over again. um and then needs to be easily to be cleaned. Right. You can't have any of those metal shavings stuck in it, which would stop it from being able to be properly used.
00:28:43
Speaker
So the way I kind of tackled this is I was supplied with CAD files of the three different models. um I worked in SOLIDWORKS to find all that common geometry and then using that, those were the grab points of the jig and that um allowed me to slide in each one of the three different um injection molded pieces so that it can be drilled in the jig.
00:29:07
Speaker
It has two little tabs so that depending on which orientation you have, it can be clamped on the table. And then it has drilling ah bushings for the front and backside, depending on which side they're drilling in the jig.
00:29:21
Speaker
Here's a little video showing this kind of how it orientates and then that's it just drilling.
00:29:27
Speaker
So I wish I could say this was the easiest project ever and I nailed it first try, but that is not how it always goes there. There's definitely some, some sticking points.
00:29:38
Speaker
ah So the first one was figuring out the common geometry. This is a problem I've never actually got the opportunity to face before. So having the three different models, they're all slightly different. And so to actually be able to find those grabbing points was very challenging.
00:29:54
Speaker
I'll kind of go over how I, how I solve that, but it, it it wasn't as
Expanding Hackathons and Multidisciplinary Integration
00:30:00
Speaker
quite cut it and dry as I thought. there There's a lot of small differences between each of the three different models, which really made that a challenge.
00:30:08
Speaker
um And just the overall orientation of the part, there's no flat faces on this piece. And so you had to slide it in from the perfect orientation at the perfect angle. So trying to balance all that in the actual design was very challenging.
00:30:25
Speaker
um And probably the biggest challenge was tolerancing on this piece. um You need it to the jig to properly hold the piece. If it's too tight, it's going to scratch it and it's going to be impossible to actually use. If it's too loose, you're going to get no accuracy or repeatability from that jig, right?
00:30:42
Speaker
So to nail that tolerancing within a millimeter was was very difficult. And the supply CAD files were unfortunately slightly wrong.
00:30:53
Speaker
um So the CAD files after injection molding, the parts are slightly smaller than the actual CAD files, um as well as whole locations. So the whole locations were wrong.
00:31:04
Speaker
They were, the CAD files supplied had the wrong whole locations. So then working with a client to find where the right locations are um was definitely challenging. But of course the product did get finished. So I did solve these.
00:31:19
Speaker
So the first one was the finding that common geometry. There's ah actually some pretty cool tools in SOLIDWORKS that solve this. So the main one being the body compare tool.
00:31:30
Speaker
So if you look in the bottom right picture, that kind of green highlighted piece, that's using the body compare tool. So all the green is the common geometry. ah Blue and black is where it deviates from each model, right? So you can see right around that.
00:31:48
Speaker
Oh, I'm pretty sure you can laser point right around this section here. there is a little bit of that black and blue. And that is something I couldn't tell by eye. Right. But by going in the software and actually comparing them, I was able to find those differences.
00:32:03
Speaker
um And then for tolerancing and whole location, that was really just trial and error. i'll I'll talk about the iterations it took here in a second, but it it definitely took a few.
00:32:17
Speaker
So for iteration one, it was too loose. So I modeled it right off the CAD files. And then when I actually got the pieces in, they were a little bit smaller, right? So they're 99% of the same volume as those original files, but they were a little bit smaller. So it was too loose.
00:32:35
Speaker
And then as mentioned, those whole locations were wrong. um I did not nail it first try. i really tried, but didn't quite get there. um But there was definitely some sex successes in that first iteration. The first being the contact point. So it,
00:32:51
Speaker
Each of the three models did slide in. It was too loose, but they did slide in and then inserting those bushings didn't crack the piece, right? With 3D printing, that's always a concern when inserting drill bushings, right? That's a lot of pressure on those layer lines and you really don't want that to pop or break.
00:33:07
Speaker
ah For iteration two, I did get the tolerancing right, but my whole locations were still off. ah Just barely, you can see in there right They're not quite centered. So it did take a third iteration to get get that nailed down.
00:33:26
Speaker
And ah kind of what did I learn from this project? Tolerancing was the big one. So that's not something I really got to work on a ton is tolerancing different parts, especially with additive manufacturing, right?
00:33:39
Speaker
And kind of working with different printers and learning that every printer has different tolerancing and accuracy and every material has different tolerancing and accuracy. so um right So this this model was printed out of ABS on 400 MC.
00:33:56
Speaker
it Unfortunately, the toning would be off if they switch materials or switch machines, um just because every machine and material is slightly different. And then configuration, playing with infill density to make a part super strong and playing with um like different um layer line thicknesses, which changes the overall strength in those layer lines so that when inputting drill bushings, it won't break your part.
00:34:23
Speaker
And then, of course, SOLIDWORKS. I swear there's always new things to learn in that program. It is a steep slope. um But I'm always excited to to learn more in that ah software. Go ahead, Sireen.
00:34:38
Speaker
And so, yeah, that that's the overall project. And i'm I'm really glad I got to work with CARMED. They were really great. it It was a pretty tight timeline on this one. I unfortunately only had roughly a week to work on this project. And so they had great response time on all my questions when trying to figure out the whole locations. And yeah, overall, really cool project to work on.
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh, that was great. Love this. Love that. look Look at the enthusiasm. It's just so and unbelievable. um We love seeing smiley faces, especially, you know, where the rubber hits the road, solving problems. Oh, love it.
00:35:14
Speaker
So I got a question for you, Shorty, because you had the winning team. What was it like to work with your project? And was there anything with the students? And was there anything that surprised you about what they uncovered when working with you?
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, well, it was, so it's always a learning curve for me to, to see how the, the student or, or how the participants going to be and what their working style is. But I was blown away. So really quick professional communication.
00:35:45
Speaker
um The emails coming through the, the ask, um you know, the scope was communicated perfectly. by the student, which was great. Usually I'm the one that has to spoon feed, but there was no spoon feeding. It was absolutely amazing. And, you know, this is, I think, our second or third project. And, you know, this was one where um we, we,
00:36:08
Speaker
basically spent about 15 to 20 minutes going through, ah that. Um, and we did it all by email, which is even more shocking to be honest, because typically I'm like, you know, I go down to the shop floor, take some photos, I got to sketch something, then I'm consuming all the oxygen in the room. And then by then finally, you know, after three hours got an idea of what we need to do. But, uh, Samuel, the, the students, uh, that, that worked on our projects, um,
00:36:37
Speaker
Yeah, he he he nailed it literally in the second attempt. So it was great. And they ah they ended up 3D printing a fixture for us with drill bushings in it, which was absolutely amazing. So the foresight, the planning, you know, what a jig and what a fixture is, the differences between those.
00:36:59
Speaker
I was just blown away. um You know, coming out of mechanical engineering technology programs where We had a dedicated course on jigs and fixture design.
00:37:10
Speaker
Oh, I was just blown away. so absolutely amazing experience. I'm going let more companies get involved um because I think it's something that everyone should be a part of. So, yeah, that's my long-winded answer to absolutely fantastic experience.
00:37:28
Speaker
Thank you. And so I'll pose it to you, Lauren, that's been working in advanced manufacturing ultimately for quite some time and specialty applications.
00:37:39
Speaker
how as ah As a new member of the AMN and a very engaged industry member, why how do we how do we make this really appealing to industry to want to participate in these types of activities?
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's good question. Thanks, Tonya. um I think that you know part of our job as ah the AMN is to help to promote these different technologies in industry.
00:38:12
Speaker
And so outreaches through this type of hackathon and and these podcasts, I think, will be critical for moving the industry forward. um And then I think engaging with the students, this is something that they're going to take away as as having been a very challenging but very also a award rewarding process and and project and and I think will help them to focus ah when they do get into the workforce on alternate manufacturing methodologies and
00:38:49
Speaker
you know Quite frankly, we see a lot of these types of methodologies used in other industries, but i kind of feel like in some regards, oil and gas and and the these types of industries are late adopters. And so you know reaching out to this type of or these types of industries is is going to be critical for additive manufacturing in Western Canada specifically. But again, a lot of this manufacturing for oil and gas tooling and whatnot does now happen in Eastern Canada. So maybe you know circling through there might be also helpful in terms of just bringing forward more of a recognition of the the possibilities and the benefits from using
00:39:42
Speaker
arching going forward. So that's kind of where i've where I'm fit. I totally echo and currently we have a yeah okay i
Call for Academia-Industry Collaboration and Future Prospects
00:40:00
Speaker
was like yes that is echoee today isn't it Yeah, maybe it just doesn't like me talking, but um ah so there we go.
00:40:07
Speaker
its It stopped, knowing that I wanted to stop. i wanted to say it's um really cool for students and recent grads to be able to take kind of like a portfolio, if you will, of what they learned, what they're able to do.
00:40:23
Speaker
um So with with myself, I graduated with some lean manufacturing background and I showed up to the interview saying, hey, I just did this really cool lean course. And they said, that's what we want. You're hired.
00:40:38
Speaker
So i thought I went for the interview Friday, started on the Monday, and it was all because if I had this little portfolio. So can you imagine, you know, a mechanical engineer comes to his interview with a broker.
00:40:49
Speaker
briefcase or a box of parts and says, this is what I, it's what I do. And then he goes into, you know, ABC welding in, in small town, Alberta and says, look, I did this welding fixture when I was in school and they go, what's that? How did you do that?
00:41:05
Speaker
Additive manufacturing. Well, what do i learn about that? So, you know, we, we ah we're building this network to be able to help each other succeed. um And you know, the, out east is is always the ones, they they seem to be the center of the universe with the amount of money they get and the industry. and But we're we're coming along. um you know where We've got some things to do. And I think this grassroots way of doing it is something that we can copy and paste and quite often. and And we're doing it out of necessity because, man, I love learning this new stuff. It's super cool.
00:41:41
Speaker
um So, yeah, we've we learned some stuff along the way. I'm wondering, should we talk a little bit about what's next? Sure. Well, let's just talk a little bit about some academia.
00:41:55
Speaker
We had some recent activity in the Edmonton region. Some announcements were made. Yeah. Having um institutions get involved with this type of project, what types of things can we do to get more colleges or more universities across Canada involved?
00:42:16
Speaker
um Because I think we don't necessarily need to be in person. It's nice to have them present, but maybe there's something more. What do you think, Tonya? right.
00:42:26
Speaker
All right. I hear that industry is really needing new hires that are, ah have the skills that are going to bring them into the next and manufacturing era.
00:42:40
Speaker
So they really need to understand design. They need to understand ah machine learning. They need to understand data analytics. ah They need to understand electronics and circuitry. So there's quite a breadth of technical skills that they need.
00:42:56
Speaker
But they're also industries also screaming for the power skills. So how do I do critical thinking? How do i collaborate with others? How do i figure out ah so all these open ended problems?
00:43:10
Speaker
ah So this these types of learning activities are are crucial to meet the needs of of our industry and manufacturing and others going forward. So it's not sector agnostic. This is across all sectors that I'm hearing industry needs this.
00:43:26
Speaker
So I'm making a ah
00:43:32
Speaker
plea to all our industry is to connect. Connect with your academic institutions and make sure they hear what you need. Connect with your government to say these are what our students need to make us successful.
00:43:45
Speaker
and And the polytechnic experience where you are getting those hands-on learning experiences through these types of activities, whether it be capstone, whether it be applied research, whether it be other types of hackathons, is the way to be able to bridge those those technical skills with what is needed to ensure economic development and and company growth.
00:44:10
Speaker
So we need, as a as a as a community to really let people know that this is what we need, this is what we're doing, and this is how we can continue to do that across multiple sectors, multiple ah provinces to meet the needs of where we know we need need to go.
00:44:28
Speaker
So we will continue to have these types of hackathon activities um yearly, quarterly, not only in in this sector, but I see them happening in other sectors, notably ah certainly health and ag as well, um particularly this those are key needs, not only in Alberta, but across the the country.
00:44:50
Speaker
And having those types of hackathons that do include ah postgraduate students, undergraduate students, diploma and certificate students,
Conclusion and Invitation to Future Hackathons
00:45:00
Speaker
because that is life where all of those skill sets work together.
00:45:04
Speaker
And how do we make sure that we're providing the platform for that to happen, not in silos, but as a full system that's adding value to our economy?
00:45:16
Speaker
Wow. i Wow. That's ah you you nailed it. I don't i don't know what what else to say other than. um Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah. um And I should probably preface something.
00:45:30
Speaker
I said the hackathon was more with the students. And when I said students, I'm still a student. I'm a live student. um And I think the hackathon is open to everybody, right?
00:45:42
Speaker
And we've had hackathons previous where they were for engineers so that they could get CPD towards their certification. um But it would be very interesting if we had multiple engineers types of engagements where you're getting your CPD if you're an engineer or another technical person needing hours of of qualification to match you with a group of students to solve your particular problem. What a great concept.
00:46:10
Speaker
So let's do it. What an idea. What an idea. And I was in ventures in Calgary. There was a guy there who did a bit of a talk. His name was Gary Vee. And he said, business owners, if you're not spending an hour a day on AI, you're going to get left behind because that's going to be the biggest wave coming to industry. So these types of events, you know, the hackathon, it kind of pushes you outside of your comfort zone, right? So, you know, having ah having Gary Vee instruct us to spend an hour a day on AI,
00:46:42
Speaker
um You know, how is it affecting your world and how can you get ahead of it? These types of ah programs are fantastic. Lauren, any other words of wisdom that you can share with us?
00:46:54
Speaker
Yeah, and no, just thinking, you know, more along what Tanya was saying where we're having this particular one, we were we were engaging one individual with one problem, but if we were able able to engage a number of individuals at different levels of education, perhaps, or industry and education and get a more collaborative um experience and more maybe an opportunity for mentoring and whatnot as well in through the process of solving these issues.
00:47:27
Speaker
I think that would be you know quite interesting to think about. And then also because we know that other parts of the country are are maybe further ahead than we are you know engaging somebody in Toronto for you know ah ah to work with people in Alberta on a, you know, ah an Alberta related issue, I think could help to spread the word of additive manufacturing and you know what these needs might be, but that's just me spitballing as the newbie.
00:47:57
Speaker
But. Absolutely. I love it. I mean, it, it doesn't cost anything to be a part of the hackathon other than some time and some willingness to learn. So um yeah, cross-functional teams are absolutely amazing with our MedTech product.
00:48:12
Speaker
We're connecting the occupational therapy program at RDP along with mechanical engineering and mechatronics. Multi-discipline approaches to collaborating is, oh, it's it's so awesome. so Well, I guess we've, I think the oxygen sensor is going off in my room here. I think I've taken all the oxygen out of the room.
00:48:34
Speaker
um So I just wanted to say thank you so much, Tanya. Thank you, Lauren. And everybody who made the 2025 Hackathon such a success. um Absolutely amazing to see and hear the student um feedback that we got from the event. And we're going to be continuing on with podcasts, teaching everybody what what it is and how you can get involved.
00:48:56
Speaker
So please, if you're curious about how to join next year, visit albertaamn.com. And let's keep building together because the future manufacturing in Alberta is collaborative, hands-on, and additive.
00:49:12
Speaker
Thank you so much. Have a great day. Yep. Thanks. Awesome. Okay. I'm going the stop button. Sweet.