The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offers a professional development course in 3D printing for the lighting, taught in partnership with leading 3D printing organizations like Signify, Stratasys, and HP. This hybrid course, combining online instruction with hands-on laboratory work, teaches lighting professionals to design specifically for 3D printing, prototype, and manufacture unique lighting systems and components using advanced additive manufacturing techniques with appropriate machines and materials enabling creation of novel designs not possible with traditional methods. Additionally, the participants will learn from successful case studies, what applications can benefit from 3D printed custom systems.
3D Printing for Lighting Professionals
Professionals from the lighting industry are invited to take part in the short 2025 LRC 3D Printing for Lighting course. Participants will learn more about the use of 3D printing in the design, development, and manufacturing of lighting components and products.
Anyone who wants to better understand the possibilities and impacts of 3D printing in lighting product lines is most welcome to join the 5-weeks educational course. In particular, the invitation goes out to equipment and materials manufacturers, product and innovation managers, industrial designers, engineers, product developers and research and development professionals.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of the course, attendees will be able to:
Appraise the value of 3D printing for manufacturing lighting systems;
Understand the 3D printing process from design to manufacture and post-production of components as it applies to lighting systems;
Understand the performance requirements of electrical, mechanical, optical, and thermal components in lighting systems and the needs of different lighting applications;
Compare the most common methods of 3D printing processes and technologies, and the pros and cons of each related to the fabrication of various lighting components;
Assess material, print parameters, and finishing requirements for lighting fixture components and systems;
Design a 3D-printed component for a lighting fixture and learn the steps involved to characterize and optimize the designed component;
Understand the process that goes into testing, evaluating, and quantifying the performance of 3D-printed lighting components.
Course Description and Schedule
There will be three weekly (approximately 2.5-hour) live, interactive sessions hosted by course faculty via an internet-based conferencing system, as well as supplemental activities and assignments to be completed by course participants throughout the five-week course period. Industry leaders from HP, Signify, and Stratasys will join LRC faculty to present updates on the state-of-the-art of additive manufacturing technologies.
Course participants will work interactively with course faculty in live, remote laboratory sessions. Participants will also design components that will be additively manufactured at the LRC and returned to participants for evaluation as part of the course sessions. Participants who successfully complete the course will be awarded a certificate from the Lighting Research Center including 15 continuing education units (CEUs).
The course will begin on October 22, 2025 and will run through November 20, 2025. Classes will meet online on three Wednesdays from 12:00 PM to 2:15 PM US Eastern Time, and then in person on November 19 and 20 at the LRC’s laboratories in Troy, NY from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. A more detailed schedule of course activities, presentations, and assignments will be provided upon registration for the course.
The cost of this five-week course is $1,800. Registration availability is limited. You can register at the official LRC web pages.
