test StationeryDear List
In my opinion universities should only be involved in
Teaching
Research
To a lesser extent Technology transfer
If a company can't see the advantage of using RP or doesn't give RP high
enough budgetary priority to pay commercial rates then RP is either not
applicable or they need education.
Some wise companies have seized on this opportunity and are combining their
need for RP with their need for education. they are doing this by joining
consortia within universities where they get access to both. A clever use
of resource if you ask me and a service which the university sector is
ideally placed to exploit.
I think that there are few commercial service providers who would be able,
or are prepared to offer a prototyping service, an accredited course and do
research in the future of the technology (remember where SLS was first
developed).
If you put all this together and don't just look at the fact that service
providers may loose a small percentage of their business to Universities
then you see that Universities have a role to play in the development of RP
as a whole.
I entirely agree that universities should not be subsidising the commercial
work of companies but that is not to say that they should not be selling
time on their machines.
Best Regards
Chris
Dr. Chris Sutcliffe
Rapid and Micro Manufacturing Research
The University of Liverpool
Department of Engineering
Ashton Building
Brownlow Hill
Liverpool
L69 3GL
Tel. (0151) 794 4316
Fax. (0151) 794 4675
Mobile (0151) 794 7729
Email c.j.sutcliffe@liv.ac.uk
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