Development and Practice of 3D Printer Usage Training Materials for Employment Support

In Japan, in the field of employment of person of with disabilities, the number of employments is increasing but still there is a problem that there are only a few employment types and industries. (1) In real time, COVID-19 infection control measures in addition to the use of ICT have accelerated new work styles. Also, 3D printers are creating new designs and manufacturing styles. (2, 3) Based on these, the purpose of this research is to develop the training materials so that person with disabilities can become operator of 3D printer and get the work. Finally, the use of it might make inclusive society. The research method is to develop training material and then conduct experiments to use it to verify the training effect. The training material is a video format consisting of slides and audio that can replay and stop by learners. Also, the training content is a basic knowledge of 3D printers and actual modeling operations. In the experiments, learners use the material and make a model and then they answered the questionnaire survey.


Introduction
At present, although the number of employments is increasing in the field of employment of person of with disabilities by improving the Act for Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities, most of the occupations are simple labor or office work.Unfortunately, even if the statutory employment rate works on the number of employees, it is difficult to continue working if the working styles do not match for someone.Ideally, it may be desirable to be suitable for individual disabilities and behavioral characteristics.
On the other hand, some ICT tools or/and environment are useful for the new workstyle, such as co-working, workcation and remote work.In addition, since ICT does not involve physical movement or heavy burden, it has the aspect of being able to make employment and work styles more flexible than ever before.3D printers are also one of them, and it is possible to make real products without the trained physical skills and body.
Based on these advantages and possibility, this research challenged the training materials for everyone without special knowledge and skills about architecture or producing for supporting the promotion of employment of people with disabilities mainly in Comprehensive Support School.

Development of the training materials for
operating of 3D printers

Contents of the Material
At first, learners need to understand the concept of 3D printer modeling mechanisms (4) and three dimensions axes like x, y, z.It might sound difficult, but the video can support the understanding.The Table 1 shows the training material contents.Ultimately, the society should be inclusive with technologies, so during the development, the training material is scrutinized so that even beginners in architectural design, architectural models and 3D modeling can understand.
After that, the learner makes 3D modeling to create a small gabled building to get the skills of making solid floor and walls, cutting the plates and compositing parts in one.A small gabled building as Fig. 1 is one of typical Japanese housing style so that making it is also the practical for working.The Fig. 2 shows the example of training material.It is the sample of the monitor on PC for learners.The operation of making skill

3D Printing Basic Skills
There are several types of 3D printing systems such as Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM), Selective Laser Sintering(SLS), Electron Beam Melting(EBM) and so on.Also, there are common skills about modeling, and understanding them will help and give the benefit of 3D printers.Learners need to know the skills and knowledge or knowhow because of their profession in the future work.They need to make models for their customers with keeping the orders, cost and time if they could have been 3D modeling operator as a job.The three main points are shown below. (1)Making Parts for Saving Time Generally, it is said that 3D printing has the advantage of modeling with one part, but it takes a very long time.As a matter of fact, it is faster to divide into several parts, increase the installation area on the printing platform, and print at the same time.Fig. 3 shows an image of separating parts from a single part printing model.
In reality, whether a prefabricated model is required depends on the product and the customers, but the model need to be looked at the inside to check quality in architecture, many industrial products and prototypes.
(2) Reduction of Hollow Part for Reducing Support Part Basically, the hollow part requires a base for modeling the upper part, so a support called a support part at the same time.It means that the 3D printers need to print including the support part and it takes longer time.Additionally, the support part will be removed and discarding after the modeling is completed.As a countermeasure, there is a reduction in hollowness by making parts as mentioned in the previous section.Another measure is to increase the installation area on the printing platform as much as possible.

Fig. 3. The image of parts (3) Choice for Saving Material and Cost
Operators need to ensure quality, use the least amount of material for modeling, and keep materials and costs down.For this reason, it is necessary to select the slicing method according to the two mentioned above, making parts and reduction of support materials.The reduction in support material can be covered by reducing hollow areas, also reducing materials and costs is down.In order to ensure quality and stabilize the strength of the model in many cases, operators need to review the modeling method inside the modeled object and the calculation method of modeling.Mainly, operators can choose that method and accuracy from existing options in 3D modeling software.

Specifications for Developing Training Materials
In the development of the training materials, the specifications and operating environment are as shown in table 2.
The materials were designed the environment so that everyone can easily watch and play it as the goal of this research is to use 3D printers available to anyone.For this reason, it is basically that it can be played on a general PC and that there is no special cost.From the concept, the model 3D printer is versatile and can be purchased and maintained by freelancers.Also, 3D modeling software is free software and can be downloaded.FFF (4)

Demonstration Experiments
In this paper, it was experimentally verified whether the created training materials could be understood by the learners, that is, whether they were practical.
Basically, the experiments are the watching and listening of the training materials by learners and questionnaire survey.In addition, some subjects operated the 3D software and made the 3D model.

Survey for Students
The first experiment subject is students and beginners about any fields as the main target of this training materials for future practicality and inclusive.The outline of the experiment shows as table 4. The subject students are first year at a college of technology and have not started a specific field of learning such architecture and modeling.The Questionnaire results are 38 samples including 3 students who made a 3D model actually using the training materials.From the results of the questionnaire, Figure 4 shows the understanding of materials contents.From that, student understandings reach to over 80%, and even the system of FFF over 40%.Also, Figure 5 shows that over 80% learners say appropriate about the material playing speed.By these results, learners could get knowledge and understanding from the training materials.
Next, Figure 6 result shows the feeling of difficult point which question is set so that all subjects are required answer.16 persons were about modeling software, and 12 persons expected the operation method to be difficult.It can be considered that students who understand the mechanism and concept are also obediently choosing the difficulty of inexperienced operation methods.On the other hands, in the question about the motivation of 3D printing, printers and 3D modeling on Figure 7, it turned out that the students felt highly motivated because of 0 person of no motivation.These results suggest a solid outcome of this training materials about using 3D printers and are proving the effects.(2) The Results of Trial the Modeling There were 3 students who try to make a model by learning the materials and operating the 3D modeling software.Finally, all of them could make a model with average time was around 50 minutes.Although the number of samples is small and it cannot be said unconditionally, it is a manual that even beginners can make models.Figure 8 shows created models.

Survey for Teachers of Shunan Comprehensive Support School
The author lectured about 3D printers for teachers of Shunan Comprehensive Support School based on interorganizational collaboration for making an inclusive society using the materials and had questionnaire survey.The school is a complex school for children with disabilities.The results of Questionnaire The author lectured about 3D printers for teachers of Shunan Comprehensive Support School based on interorganizational collaboration for making an inclusive society using the materials and had questionnaire survey in August 2021.As in the previous section, the outline of this experiment is shown as Table 5.
At first, about the understanding of the training material in Figure 9, around 70% teachers understood the operations, and 50% teachers understood the three dimensions and the system of FFF.Compared to the student results, it is a little lower, but it can be said that it is a sufficient understanding.Regarding the viewing speed in Figure 10, the percentage that feels a little faster is close to 50%.In addition to the results shown in Fig. 9, teachers are generally elder, so the results are lower than the generation in which students are accustomed to digital tools.However, in terms of the difficulty shown in Figure 11, the software that creates models was the most common for both faculty members and students.
From this, it can be seen that there are a certain number of people who have a feeling of resistance to performing 3D modeling on PC even if they understand the 3D mechanism.This point is also a difficult problem to be solved only with our teaching materials.However, there is room for improvement in the speed of training materials for inclusiveness, even if learners can view repeatedly.
Finally, in the motivation of Figure 12, although the point of difficulty in modeling is raised for the above reason, there is no 0 motivation and the interest of 3D printers.Also, additional question, about "If you have a chance to use a 3D printer at school in the future, would you like to try it?", 96% said they would like to try.(2) The Results of Trial the Modeling There were 5 teachers try to make a model and operating the 3D modeling software.Accidentally, authors supported regarding the basic operation of the PC, but all of them could make a model with average time was around 50 minutes.The teachers have various specialties, but modeling was possible even if they were not in charge of science.Figure 13 shows training and support.

Achievement and Improvement Points of Training materials
(1) The results of Questionnaire From the results of questionnaire surveys, it was verified that this training materials could help learners understand 3D printing technology, printers, and 3D models.At the same time, in the operation practice experiment, although the number of samples was small, the learners completed the 3D model with repeated viewing.From the above, it can be said that the training materials have been developed that allow learners to self-taught and produce 3D printing and 3D modeling.However, it is necessary to improve the speed adjustment for viewing to reduce the burden on learners.In addition, we decided that it was necessary to continue to devise ways to reduce the feeling of resistance to modeling in 3D for being more inclusive.And then, ultimately, it is necessary to give trials to students and workers in need of assistance.

Conclusions
In conclusion, this research has developed training materials that make it easy for everyone to use 3D printers and conducted a demonstrational experiment on the effectiveness of the training materials.The training material is constructed with video and audio in slides and can be watched repeatedly.
In the future, first of all, while improving the training materials, we will practice whether the students of the support school can use it.At the parallel time, as employment support, we also provide training materials to those who aim to acquire new technologies in society.

Table 3 .
The environment of materials playback

Table 4 .
The outline of experiments