STATE of the art technology at Bradford College has helped re-create the city’s iconic statues of former rulers in materials as varied as paper to plastic.

When the college’s Advanced Technology Centre on Great Horton Road opened last year, it meant students had access to the latest in 3D printing and scanning technology.

One of the most ambitious projects that has been taken on using the technology is the scanning of the statues of former rulers that stand on the walls of Bradford City Hall.

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Repair works to the Grade I listed building meant the statues were more accessible, and as part of a joint project with Bradford Council, college staff set about scanning the statues, effectively creating digital reproductions of them.

These statues can now be re-created in different scales using 3D printers. And with the college having a number of different printers, these statues can be re-created in plastic, resin, and even from blocks of paper.

The technology is so advanced that the reproductions are even shaded with the exact weathering on the statues, and these digital scans could be printed out from anywhere in the world with compatible technology.

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The scanners can also be used to scan people, and the college has an impressive mini bust that was downloaded and printed off using the paper 3D printer.

Other items that have been printed at the college include a scale model of a human skull, a working spring, and a hammer made of paper, but that is still strong enough to use as a functioning tool.

Zaid Bashir, technical team leader for Technology and Media, said the centre and the 3D printers had been popular with engineering and art students, and was so in demand students sometimes had to book slots weeks in advance.

He added: “It is a very steep learning curve, you learn quite a lot when you are using these machines because they are very new technology.

“We don’t think that locally anyone has quite the variety of 3D printers that we have.

“We plan on doing full body scans of students soon.”