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Valley creation sure to turn heads at GOP convention
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber has a showpiece to trump other showpieces at the Republican National Convention next month in Cleveland.
A 7-foot-tall, 3-D-printed Donald Trump bobblehead will represent the industry drivers of the Mahoning Valley: metals – specifically aluminum – and 3-D printing.
“We will also deliver the message that the Youngstown-Warren regional area is high-tech,” said Guy Coviello, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs.
The chamber has submitted requests to show off the Trump showpiece at two locations the city has designated as display areas for the convention.
The idea for the 3-D version of the presumptive Republican nominee was inspired by the display created for the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. The Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Myrtle Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau commissioned a 25-foot sand sculpture of President Barack Obama.
“When the chamber was looking for a unique presence, we look at attributes of the region, and the first thing that came to mind was 3-D printing,” said Mike Hripko, associate vice president for research at Youngstown State University. “We got a bunch of people in a room and figured out how to do it.”
YSU had the 3-D printer to make Trump’s head. Humtown Products of Columbiana had access to a printer large enough to make Trump’s body. Freshmade 3D of Youngstown, a Youngstown Business Incubator portfolio company, had the capability to design the showpiece.
“It’s a unique opportunity to attract and inform,” Hripko said.
The design started with the body, which is sand-based. After it was known who the presumptive nominee would be, the design of the head came next. Freshmade 3D, a company that focuses on 3-D-printed parts for the restoration industry, used sculpting software for the design. The head will be plastic with metal inside.
“This will be coated in aluminum to protect it from the elements and to make it look nice,” said Christopher Tomko, co-founder of Freshmade 3D.
Humtown Products, a company more than 50 years old that produces sand cores, molds and patterns for the foundry industry, is transitioning from conventional manufacturing processes to using additive manufacturing with the presence of America Makes, the first additive manufacturing hub in the U.S.
Humtown, as an America Makes member, had access to the printer needed for the project.
The body, printed with sand and held together with resin, was printed in pieces.
“It was a unique project to work on,” said Brandon Lamoncha, sales manager at Humtown. “It’s just been great. [We will do] anything we can do to help show what’s going on here.”
The head of Trump took more than 200 hours to print, and the hair alone consumed more than 150 hours of printing time.
“There’s a marriage of technology and artistry,” Tomko said.
The life-sized, 3-D Trump is valued at $35,000.
Another life-sized bobble head of Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will be printed and displayed with Trump at the first presidential debate at Wright State University in Dayton in September.