RepRap
Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust, think Lego bricks and you’re in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right – a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn’t even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can use it to make another and give that one to a friend…
The general idea behind RepRap sounds amazing. I have just one concern: They use plastic :(
BlackJack says:
I remember a couple years ago reading Cory Doctorow’s story “Printcrime”(http://craphound.com/?p=573) and thinking that seems cool, but isn’t that a bit far away in the future? Then last summer I worked as an intern in a university lab near my home, and we used a 3d printer to fabricate all of our parts, and I thought “oh… we’re closer than I thought, I wonder how close they are to building 3d printers that can build themselves?”
Now we have them.
Holy god, technology moves fast. In just a few years we go from science fiction to reality. It boggles my mind.
BlackJack says:
oh, what’s even better?
The printers in Doctorow’s story aren’t even as good as the printers today.
Ben says:
This is pretty fascinating stuff. It’d be nice if they could make the RepRap make parts in more recyclable materials, and also if they could modify it’s look. Aesthetics are of course a completely unnecessary thing when you’re talking about a factory, but consumers might be even more excited to have a RepRap in their homes if it’s pleasantly designed instead of a spindly, wiry thing that looks like a grade nine science project. Still, cool and exciting technology!
Benji says:
yeah, i saw something like this few years ago as a project, it looked fun, but will it really suceed ?? i mean, it works, coo, but does it have a future ?? it’s expensive and all ^^’
But i really like the idea =D
ardoslover says:
Thanks for this, Josh. I understand your concern regarding the fact that it uses plastic, but think of it this way: if a lot of people got these printers, the price of virgin (meaning new and unused, ya perv! ;) ) plastic would likely go up. All plastic prices would go up, of course, but recycled plastic would be a lot cheaper (as it is now, anyway), which would encourage people to recycle. In theory, anyway….