The laboratory is designed for modelling and subsequent electrical equipment printing of power stations and substations . No company in the field of power industry can do without design engineers as the process of designing is of paramount importance.

3D visualization of electrical equipment by means of different types of software is applied for customer needs (e.g. in the case of non-standard solutions), implementation of new equipment projects or prototype and, what is more important, the import of 3D drawings into special software (COMSOL Multiphysics, Ansys, ELCUT etc.). Primarily, such software use spatial models for different field calculations for the research and development purposes. Particularly, simulation of physical processes inside the arc chute of a high-voltage circuit breaker during short circuit is of great scientific interest for both electrical and electrophysics engineers.

3D printing of electrical equipment in real size doesn't make much sense thus it is more relevant to print on a smaller scale for educational purposes what has already been implemented at Ural Federal University at Ural Power Institute. Students get acquainted with the design of electrical equipment, and with a full-fledged 3D model they can fully study such energy object as power substation, for example.

The first illustration shows 3D model creation of such electrical equipment as circuit breaker (nominal voltage 110 kV). The stages include:

• geometrical measurements on the real equipment (on the substation) and study of operation manual (contains 2D drawings).
• drawing of 2D projections
• 3D model creation
• printing of 3D model

The second illustration represents 3D model of 110 kV circuit breaker with the inside part, i.e. arc chute. Its spatial model is used for field calculations.