Sometimes a dream is just that, and sometimes the dream becomes reality. This dream is all about 3-D printing, a technology that is still in its infancy.
“Think of it as a box that can make a box. You can do aluminum fibers, glass and chocolate. Take all those materials put it on a spool. Take that spool and tell the printer what to make and the printer will make a solid object,” explained Brandon Williams, .
So Brandon, who studied mechanical engineering, started reading about 3-D printing because he had ideas, or dreams.
He built a printer in his work shop, his dream lab in his home, and his wife Brita is by his side helping with the programming and assisting.
If you program it you can make it with a 3-D printer. Brandon, experimenting and trying to make a product, has lots of ideas.
“We’ve done everything from bag clips to rifle stocks to night lights, flash lights. T-shirt emblems. We’ve done camera holders, gosh the list is endless,” said Brandon.
But remember this is DreamLab, so he applied for an opportunity with NASA. They were looking for someone to help study 3-D printing to be used on future space missions.
Astronaut time is valuable. These tests will allow for automating monitoring of printing tasks.
Brandon applied, then kind of forgot about it, until one day walking through a store carrying his son his phone rang.
“NASA calls, they say, ‘Is this Brandon?’ and I say ‘Yeah.’ ‘This is Kim from NASA,’ I say, ‘Whatever mom,’ because my mom is that way. We’re talking and she says, ‘We accepted your application. We’ve chosen you as the small business contractor.’ I was blown away!” explained Brandon.
He’s flown to visit the gang at NASA and hung out with rocket scientists.
3-D printing is still unique, Brandon is trying to harness that uniqueness; the dream of DreamLab!
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