Celebrates Nearly 20 Years with Roland DG

As a leading education provider, Falmouth University chose Roland DG machines to teach the next generation of professionals thanks to their value, reliability and versatility

Roland DG is renowned for building and maintaining loyal and long-lasting customer relationships across the world thanks to its versatile technology solutions that are created with the end-user in mind. It is therefore, no surprise that Roland DG has enjoyed a strong relationship that spans over 15 years with the award-winning School of Architecture, Design and Interior at Falmouth University.

The Head of Sustainable Product Design, Drummond Masterton, first experienced the impressive capabilities of Roland DG's technology when he loaned a CAMM-2 engraver from the Design and Make Centre; "The center was a Cornish-based initiative that was set up to upscale the skills of design and technology teachers across the county to encourage the integration of digital making into the national curriculum."

As part of the initiative, Roland DG products were lent to high schools across Cornwall to offer hundreds of young people the valuable opportunity to gain practical experience using industry-leading machinery.

Following this previous successful relationship, in 2004, under the guidance of Drummond, Falmouth University invested heavily in a variety of Roland DG products to diversify their offering and provide different entry points for students to enter their studies dependent on experience. The investment saw the University add a LPX-250, CAMM-1 and CAMM-2, legacy products of Roland DG's current range of world-renowned machines, to its family of machines in a bid to provide an accessible machine for beginners to utilize. For those more confident and experienced students, the introduction of the MDX-500 allowed them to practice more advanced work, including cutting on harder materials such as resin boards and wood.

Additional Roland DG investments at Falmouth University has allowed the learning provider to create an excellent digital manufacturing workshop, which includes a suite of Roland DG machines including three Modela Pro II MDX-540's and monoFab SRM-20's. This has enabled students studying at the University to become technically proficient and capable of prototyping in almost any material.

Furthermore, the MDX-540 played a key role in Falmouth University's entry into last year's Shell Eco Car Marathon, as student's utilized aluminum mounting brackets which were cut on the professional quality milling machine. The Shell Eco Marathon is a global competition that challenges students to push the boundaries in vehicle energy efficiency and provides an arena for students to test the vehicles they have designed and manufactured.

Discussing why Roland DG was Falmouth University's preferred choice of manufacturer, Drummond said; "In terms of value for money versus life span, I believe Roland DG's machines are the best on the market. The longevity of its products are tried and tested; we have some Roland DG machinery at the University which we have used continuously for over 10 years with very little maintenance work needed."

In addition to consistent reliability, Drummond also praises the quality output of Roland DG products, citing the excellence of the machinery as a major factor in enabling their students to deliver high quality workmanship. "The rigidity and build quality of the machines enables students to cut ultrafine details including text and surface textures, enabling them to professionally communicate sophisticated ideas from 3DCAD into physical models," he added.

As well as offering students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with award-winning machinery from within the classroom, Falmouth University also initiated a scheme in which Roland DG's SRM-20 machine was made available for students to take home to finish prototyping during weekends and even school holidays.

"The SRM-20 is a fairly accessible milling machine that is easy to use and produces reliable results. More importantly, as our students graduate and are perhaps looking to start their own business, we felt that the SRM-20 is an affordable option and realistic investment for first-time buyers," Drummond explained.

After discovering the infinite possibilities that Roland DG's versatile machines provide, Falmouth University has enjoyed a fifteen year relationship with the UK market's leading provider of machines for the creative industry. And as Roland DG continue to produce its machines with the end user in mind; offering value, reliability and versatility to its clients, it looks as though this partnership will continue for many more decades to come.