Which laser machine should I have?
We would be happy to show you your material processing without obligation. At our place or on location.
Eric Slotboom
Operation Director
Martijn de Koning works there as administrator of the Innovation Lab. The goal of the Innovation Lab is to raise the technical level of students to a higher level. To this end, there is a diverse range of machinery: from lathes to CNC machines and from laser machines to 3D printers. With all the equipment and techniques in the Innovation Lab, Martijn provides connection in different ways. Connection with students but also with colleagues and courses.
Collaboration and integration.
Martijn enthusiastically talks about the Innovation Lab, where the words ‘together’ and ‘collaboration’ constantly come up. Working together with a student to convert a drawing into a product. Collaborating with a teacher to find a solution for an item that would otherwise be expensive to purchase. But also making techniques work together – using a 3D printer for name tags and the laser machine for cutting wood – to create a unique storage box for the reception. The Innovation Lab is sought after for all sorts of projects!
Other schools have also discovered their way to the Innovation Lab. For example, students from secondary schools visit weekly. They learn, for instance, to program in a playful way using programmable LEGO. During an Open Day, they bring their parents along instead of the other way around. Then he hears, ‘Can I show my father or mother that robot?’ ‘Of course, the door is always open for them,’ Martijn says.
For everyone at Rijn IJssel.
Construction engineering students make grateful use of the BRM laser machine. Creating scale models with a knife and fretsaw is a thing of the past. And in the Engineering program, they develop machines that require mounting plates. That was always outsourced. If a student made a mistake in the drawing, they had to reorder it. That resulted in additional costs and delays. Now, it can be done cheaper and faster internally.
‘They come in with an idea. Well, then I’ll come up with something.’ – Martijn de Koning
In addition to the projects or prototypes that students come to create, the BRM lasers are also used in other ways. For example, a colleague from Laboratory Technology needed 30 pipette holders. Purchasable externally at €45 each. That is expensive, and the colleague would not be immediately helped because it would require an investment request. Martijn cut the holder out of plexiglass and printed the bracket, providing a pipette holder for €2 and a happy colleague.
‘We are happy with our second machine, and the first machine is still working just fine.’
Price, accessibility, and support.
The first BRM laser at Rijn IJssel was purchased by another colleague and located in the Creative Industry program. It was used so much over there that there was no room to use it more broadly. When Martijn discovered this machine, he immersed himself in it and trained other colleagues so that they could also work with it. He visited Eric from BRM to view a larger laser machine. Ultimately, for Rijn IJssel, it was not the purchase price that was decisive, but the combination of price, accessibility, and support.
A great step forward.
Martijn describes BRM as technical, enthusiastic, and service-oriented. With the second BRM laser machine in his Innovation Lab, Martijn is very pleased. He finds the user-friendly LightBurn software that is now included as standard to be a great step forward.
