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Make Youngstown showcases maker insight
Make Youngstown
Video Set
Make Youngstown 2016, April 20
Podcast Episode
Audio from Make Youngstown 2016 open panel discussion featuring Tony DeAscentis (Ving), Brian Alls and Jessie Tuscano (Bravura 3D), and Dan Fernback (JuggerBot 3D). on ...
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Scott Conner watched as the last layers of plastic were laid to top off a miniature Egyptian Queen Nefertiti bust.
The seventh-grader at Valley Christian School’s Lewis Center circled around to the different businesses at the Make Youngstown event on Youngstown State University’s campus on Wednesday.
He watched, asked questions and learned more about 3-D printing, but he already seems to know a lot.
“I love 3-D printing,” said Scott, whose father is Brett Conner, the director of Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Initiatives at YSU. “From the day my dad told me about it, I have always been in love with it. I love that you can create what you want when you want it.”
America Makes, the Youngs-town Business Incubator and YSU hosted the Make Youngstown event Wednesday. It continues from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today with a panel discussion from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Williamson College of Business.
The event showcases additive manufacturing companies and others that align with the “maker” movement. The businesses use the event not only for networking, but as a way to teach the community about additive manufacturing – the process of using technologies that build 3-D objects by adding layer after layer of material.
“This is really just a part of a cluster of activities that promote the use of the technology and the industry,” said Rich Wetzel, additive manufacturing business coordinator at YBI. “We are really trying to grow this whole maker movement that’s going on right now.”
The first maker event was hosted by America Makes in 2014. Some businesses showcased this year were also there for the first event and have come a long way since then.
Brian Alls and Jessie Tuscano started Bravura 3D about three years ago. The two were attending YSU and saw the need to build a 3-D printer that was simple for the consumer to use.
Two years ago, the YBI-based Bravura didn’t have a printer to display, but now it does. On Wednesday, the delta-style, or vertical-shaped, printer was printing the Nefertiti bust.
“Our goal is to make a printer that is incredibly simple, easy to use, easy to maintain and easy to troubleshoot,” Alls said.
JuggerBot 3D, another YBI-based company, also had its 3-D printer on display, but JuggerBot’s was built for industrial use. Two years ago, JuggerBot was just getting started and now is nearly ready to market the product.
The three YSU engineering graduates who started the company plan to introduce in September a line of engineering-grade 3-D printers that are easy to use and versatile.
“We found there are certain shortcomings for the existing 3-D printers that needed to be met for this to be a fully-functional tool for engineers around the world,” said Dan Fernback, chief executive officer of JuggerBot 3D.
JuggerBot will launch beta testing with local manufacturers in May. Without organizations like YBI and Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, GLIDE, there to offer an entrepreneurial network of resources, Fernback doesn’t believe JuggerBot would be as far along as it is today. JuggerBot received $25,000 each from YBI and GLIDE after winning competitions with its 3-D printer.
“The YBI being in our backyard is the most valuable and is the reason for a lot of our success, or at least attributes to it,” he said.