Consumers Create Products at Home With New Technology

Posted on June 8, 2005

CNN is reporting on a new self-replicating rapid prototyping technology, called RepRap, which consumers could use to create hundreds of products themselves that they typically purchased in stores or ordered online. A RepRap could conceivably let people easily make copies of simple items like plates and combs and eventually more complicated products if microchips could be added. It goes without saying a RepRap in every home would greatly change the manufacturing and shipping of many consumer products. The RepRap concept was created by Dr. Adrian Bowyer, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Bath in the UK. Bowyer has a RepRap website and blog.

Rapid prototyping machines work by building a succession of layers, either bonded by a laser or held together by alternating layers of glue.
The key feature of the RepRap is its ability to print electrical circuits by squirting a metal alloy with a low-melting point from a heated nozzle.
The machine could build items ranging in size from a few millimeters to around 30 centimeters, such as plates, dishes, combs and musical instruments.
Larger or more complicated items could be assembled from smaller parts, and by adding extra parts such as screws and microchips.

A recent press release by the University of Bath also describes the project Dr. Bowyer is embarking on:

Dr Bowyer said all that would be needed for a machine owner would be to buy the plastic and low-temperature alloy for a few pounds, and items could then be created in a few minutes or a few hours depending on their size. Designs for items could be bought – or downloaded free – from the web. Alternatively, people could create them for themselves on their own PCs.
He said that he would publish the 3D designs and computer code for the machine to replicate itself on the web over the next four years as they are developed, until the entire machine could be copied.
He said that he has not taken out a patent and will not charge for creating the design for the machine. "The most interesting part of this is that we're going to give it away," he said.
"At the moment an industrial company consists of hundreds of people building and making things. If these machines take off, it will give individual people the chance to do this themselves, and we are talking about making a lot of our consumer goods – the effect this has on industry and society could be dramatic."
The machines would be about the size of a refrigerator, and would self-reproduce by making a copy of themselves, part by part. These parts would then have to be assembled manually by their owners.

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