QMUL colleagues fixed a broken tape backup with a 3D printed bit

In among the usual admin work-related emails there was a bit of a gem yesterday from my colleague Harry Krikelis (who is one of our IT Support people at QMUL's School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)) which made me smile and want to blog and tweet about it.

Some 3D printed gears

Last week one of the EECS data tape library units (data storage / critical backup that sort of thing) stopped working because of a broken 7mm gear - this is fairly disastrous anywhere, but especially in a department made up of computer science researchers who make heavy use of high tech computing resources. Rather than wait for a quote from the manufacturer to replace the unit, Harry worked with Julie Freeman to design and print a 3D model of the broken gear, using the 3D printer in the Materials Lab (bought, along with other cool stuff, with funding from the EPSRC to support the equipment needs of the Media and Arts Technology programme). Isn't that brilliant. It's all working fine now, hooray, and cost about 1,000% less ;)

Black gears on the right with the new addition near the front.

If you're thinking "I wish I had access to a 3D printer" you might try one of the hackspaces around the country https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/3D_Printer (list zoomable map). Last year's IET Faraday Challenge was also about 3D printing.