During the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year, Germantown Academy students Elliot Myers ‘29, Henry Brownstein ‘30 and Sam Neuman ‘29, led by Middle School Science teacher Dr. James DiFranco, noticed that the 3D printers in the Beard Center for Innovation (BCI) were falling behind modern models.
The old models, Makerbot Replicator 3s, were slow, inefficient and imprecise. The students worked with the tech office to talk about the advantages of purchasing new, up-to-date models.
“Before, it was a fifty-fifty chance the prints wouldn’t turn out good. It wasn’t accurate or consistent,” Neuman said. “We showed the tech office what is currently on the market, how it’s better than what we currently had.”
After the initial meeting, during the third interim, they had another meeting with the tech office after reviewing the models on the market. Two weeks after that, two of the brand new printers arrived.
“The old models didn’t accurately represent what new printers were actually capable of,” Myers said.
The list of benefits offered by the new model, the X1 Carbon from Bambu Lab, is vast. They are much easier to use, faster, can use new colors and materials, offer improved precision and other benefits across the board.
“The old printers can make a benchy (a standardized test print to evaluate the quality of 3D printers) in about an hour and a half. It wasn’t super great,” Neuman said. “The new printers can make one in 20 minutes, and they can make it in much better quality at the same time.”
These new 3D printers have already been used for a variety of projects. Seniors Gabe Meinstein ‘26 and Tyler Tang ‘26 have used them in their “Senior Survival Pack” for their engineering final to create 3D printed fidgets. The tech office printed superhero masks like Wolverine and Deadpool. Innovation Studio, a Middle School club, has also utilized the new printers, for example, trying to print RC planes.
These 3D printers have made printing more approachable to everybody across all ages. Their accessibility and simple use allow them to be user-friendly, even for beginners who aren’t tech-savvy.
“You used to have to be good at fixing up printers and making sure that everything was set before you print. And even then, you might have failures. But now it’s just click and print, it’s really easy,” Myers said. “I got into 3D printing in Lower School. If these new printers were there, it would’ve been so much easier to learn.”
The 3D printing industry is also evolving, from bio-printing living tissue, printing houses with concrete to printing custom-fitting casts. For now, Germantown Academy technology is expanding with these new 3D printers, which are available for student and faculty use.