Students and community repair volunteers recently had the opportunity to explore a novel way to create spare plastic parts for repair: 3D design and 3D printing.
This idea first occurred when coming across a number of snapped plastic parts as part of UWE Bristol’s Repair Café. The traditional way of using glue and epoxy resins was not always suitable or strong enough, and after a first successful trial of fixing a Soda Stream by replacing a broken seal with a new 3D printed version, the team behind the MAKERS project decided to explore 3D printing for repair more.
MAKERS (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability) aims to improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the West of England.
Students and MAKERS community partners were invited to take part in a 3D design workshop led by Dr Joe Butchers, lecturer in Engineering Principles, to explore how the freely available and easy to use platform Tinkercad could be used, even by those with no relevant previous experience to create spare parts.
After practicing on some initial simple shapes and design, the group got to work on some broken sample parts, which had been sent in by members of the public to create a new part. As part of this, they successfully created a new plastic bracket for a 40-year-old baby cot.
3D printed replacement cot catch and the original, broken version
The session was a great way to explore how 3D printing could be made more accessible to the wider repair community, and the team are now looking to run another one soon, giving the amount of interest from the repair community and students to learn more, and to work through some of the other broken items that were offered by members of the public to be fixed.
The team are exploring routes to run a workshop again and seeking funding for future training.
Laura Fogg-Rogers, Associate Professor for Engineering in Society, was recently featured on BBC Radio Bristol, where she talked about her work at UWE Bristol and her latest project.
In the interview with host Steve Yabsley, Laura talked about how her work focusses on the relationship between people and technology, and her passion for sustainability, climate action and climate education. As such, she feels strongly about designing a future that makes a difference to communities and the environments they are embedded in, something that is not only evidenced by her work at UWE: alongside her role at the School of Engineering, Laura is also very active in her local community, where she runs a climate action group and, as part of that, a Repair Café. She is also a key figure in the wider Bristol Repair Café network, where she has helped to set up numerous Repair Cafés in the city and beyond.
Laura is a strong supporter of the Repair Movement and the Circular Economy, as they address numerous challenges typically associated with the throwaway culture and overconsumption dominant in the Global North, something that is further fuelled by planned obsolescence.
“When you throw something out, it doesn’t go out, it just goes somewhere else in the world and creates problems for other people. So, we need to think about our stuff and where it goes, and that’s the circular economy: things going round in circles, being re-used, and really thinking about the best materials, that are going to last the longest.”
Laura Fogg-Rogers in her interview on BBC Radio Bristol
However, Repair Cafés do not only tackle the practical challenges around Climate Change, but there are wider societal benefits, too: Repair Cafés can generate a real sense of community, helping to create a sense of belonging and purpose, alongside increased levels of confidence that come with the “joy of problem solving”.
Some impressions from Repair Cafés “in action” in Eastville and Winterbourne
Having experienced the benefits of Repair Cafés first hand, Laura was keen to bring the Repair Movement and all its benefits to UWE Bristol and its students: Her latest project, MAKERS, which stands for “Making And Knowledge Exchange for Repair & Sustainability” is designed to help students from all backgrounds feel a sense of belonging, and for them to grow and develop their engineering passions, whilst supporting their community at UWE Bristol and beyond.
The Royal Academy of Engineering awarded nearly £90,000 to the project from its Diversity Impact Programme, which aims to inspire change within university engineering departments. The programme provides funding for schemes that transform the experiences of engineering students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
As part of the project, engineering students at UWE will be setting up a Repair Café on campus, drawing on the experience of volunteers in established Repair Cafés in the Bristol area:
“We want to encourage that hands-on and intergenerational learning between students and communities. […] A lot of engineering these days is digital, it’s very technical and high-tech and you don’t get to take things apart as much because you might break it, so we are going to re-teach those skills. […] It’s also about tackling loneliness, community isolation, and students forming a community together.”
Laura Fogg-Rogers on BBC Radio Bristol
Apart from local Repair Cafés, The MAKERS project will also be working with Community and Youth Projects in St Paul’s and Easton, building on UWE Bristol Engineering’s growing reputation for supporting representation and belonging in engineering for Women and people from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic groups, alongside inter-sectional backgrounds of lower socio-economic status.
Kat Corbett, who is a Repair Café volunteer at the Old Library in Eastville, has since joined the team at UWE as a project co-ordinator, where she will be drawing on her experience in the community to help MAKERS thrive.
