SHOWING OFF THE new equipment recently added to the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District Technical Education Center are, from left, Danika Varda, Jenna Olkkonen, CAD instructor Mike Erkkila, DIISD Career and Tech Education Director Michael Mulligan, Easton Lieburm, Brody Kopp and Gavin Stapleton.

KINGSFORD — The Kingsford High School Computer Aided Design classroom recently received new equipment that will allow students to print their design in two or three dimensions.

The HP plotter will be used to print drawings such as architectural floor plans or details of mechanical parts in 2-D.

The Dremel 3-D Printer will create models of their design.

The equipment was purchased with CTE funds from the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District Technical Education.

Two-dimensional printing has been around for many years. However, 3D printing, also known as additive technology, is a fairly new technology.

The printer that was chosen allows printing from the cloud-based software program so that sending objects to the printer can be done from anywhere on the Internet. The Polar 3-D Cloud allows the instructor to review print jobs before they are printed.

The two printers will be accessible to the 50-plus students who are enrolled in the KHS Mechanical Design and Engineering and Architectural Graphics classes.

Having this state-of-the-art equipment available to students may encourage more of them to enroll in the pre-engineering classes. These types of skills are considered valuable when pursuing advanced education in engineering or for obtaining technical jobs right out of high school. For more information, contact the KHS Guidance Office or the DIISD Tech Center.