![First replication](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/First_replication.jpg)
The RepRap project started in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 2005 as a
University of Bath
(Virgil, Georgics II)
, mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind
, established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...
initiative to develop a low-cost
3D printer
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...
that can print most of its own components, but it is now made up of hundreds of collaborators worldwide.
RepRap is short for rep''licating'' rap''id prototyper''.
As an
open design
The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardwar ...
, all of the designs produced by the project are released under a
free software license
A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder (usually the author) ...
, the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...
.
Due to the ability of the machine to make some of its own parts, authors envisioned the possibility of cheap RepRap units, enabling the manufacture of complex products without the need for extensive industrial infrastructure.
[J.M. Pearce, ''Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs'', Elsevier, 2014.] They intended for the RepRap to demonstrate
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
in this process as well as for it to increase in number exponentially.
A preliminary study claimed that using RepRaps to print common products results in economic savings.
History
RepRap was founded in 2005 by Dr
Adrian Bowyer
Adrian Bowyer is an English engineer and mathematician, formerly an academic at the University of Bath.
Born in 1952 in London, Bowyer is the older child of the late Rosemary and John Bowyer; the latter was a writer, painter and one of the fo ...
, a Senior Lecturer in
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
at the
University of Bath
(Virgil, Georgics II)
, mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind
, established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...
in England. Funding was obtained from the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...
.
On 13 September 2006, the RepRap 0.2 prototype printed the first part identical to its own, which was then substituted for the original part created by a commercial 3D printer. On 9 February 2008, RepRap 1.0 "Darwin" made at least one instance of over half its rapid-prototyped parts. On 14 April 2008, RepRap made an end-user item: a clamp to hold an
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
to the dashboard of a
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...
car. By September that year, at least 100 copies had been produced in various countries. On 29 May 2008, Darwin achieved self replication by making a complete copy of all its rapid-prototyped parts (which represent 48% of all the parts, excluding fasteners). A couple hours later the "child" machine had made its first part: a timing-belt tensioner.
File:Extrusion of hexagon 2nd layer closeup.jpg, RepRap 0.1 building an object
File:Firstpart1.jpg, First part ever made by a RepRap to make a RepRap, fabricated by the Zaphod prototype, by Vik Olliver (2006-09-13)
In April 2009, electronic circuit boards were produced automatically with a RepRap, using an automated control system and a swappable head system capable of printing both plastic and conductive solder. On 2 October 2009, the second generation design, called Mendel, printed its first part. Mendel's shape resembles a
triangular prism
In geometry, a triangular prism is a three-sided prism; it is a polyhedron made of a triangular base, a translated copy, and 3 faces joining corresponding sides. A right triangular prism has rectangular sides, otherwise it is ''oblique''. A unif ...
rather than a cube. Mendel was completed in October 2009. On 27 January 2010, the
Foresight Institute
The Foresight Institute (Foresight) is a San Francisco-based research non-profit that promotes the development of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies, such as safe AGI, biotech and longevity.
Foresight runs four cross-disciplinary pr ...
announced the "Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize" for the design and construction of an improved RepRap.
On 31 August 2010, the third generation design was named Huxley. It was a miniature of Mendel, with 30% of the original print volume. Within two years, RepRap and
RepStrap building and use were widespread in the technology, gadget and engineering communities.
In 2012, the first successful Delta design, Rostock, had a radically different design. The latest iterations used
OpenBeams, wires (typically Dyneema or Spectra fishing lines) instead of belts, and so forth, which also represented some of the latest trends in RepRaps.
In early January 2016, RepRapPro (short for "RepRap Professional", and one commercial arm of the RepRap project in the UK) announced that it would cease trading on 15 January 2016. The reason given was congestion of the market for low-cost 3D printers and the inability to expand in that market. RepRapPro China continues to operate.
RepRap 10th Birthday party.jpg, A RepRap 10th Birthday celebration:
Left to right back row: Bonnie (earliest E3D employee), Torbjørn Ludvigsen (maker of Hangprinter
Hangprinter is an Open-source model, open-source fused deposition modeling delta 3D printer notable for its unique frameless design. It was created by Torbjørn Ludvigsen. The Hangprinter uses relatively low cost parts and can be constructed for ...
), E3D Online founders Dave Lamb, Joshua Rowley and Sanjay Mortimer, Chris Palmer (nophead Mendel 90), Christian, Clare Difazio.
Left to right front row: Rongsheng Zhang (RepRapPro China), Greg Holloway (toolchanger and BigBox), Rory (E3D engineer), Adrian Bowyer
Adrian Bowyer is an English engineer and mathematician, formerly an academic at the University of Bath.
Born in 1952 in London, Bowyer is the older child of the late Rosemary and John Bowyer; the latter was a writer, painter and one of the fo ...
, Mary, Sally Bowyer (Director of RepRapLtd) and Richard Horne.
Hardware
As the project was designed by Dr Bowyer to encourage evolution, many variations have been created.
[RepRap Family Tree](_blank)
/ref> As an open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
project, designers are free to make modifications and substitutions, but they must allow any of their potential improvements to be reused by others.
Designs
There are many RepRap printer designs including:
File:Prusa i3 MK2.jpg, Prusa i3
The Prusa i3 series consists of open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printers, manufactured by Czech company Prusa Research under the trademarked name Original Prusa i3. Part of the RepRap project, Prusa i3 printers were named the most used ...
File:Hangprinter 3D printer.jpg, Hangprinter
Hangprinter is an Open-source model, open-source fused deposition modeling delta 3D printer notable for its unique frameless design. It was created by Torbjørn Ludvigsen. The Hangprinter uses relatively low cost parts and can be constructed for ...
File:Fisher delta RepRap 3D printer.jpg, RepRap Fisher
The RepRap Fisher is an open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printer and is part of the RepRap project. The RepRap Fisher is named after the English statistician and biologist Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890&nb ...
File:RepRap Snappy 3D printer Version 0.9.jpg, RepRap Snappy
The RepRap Snappy is an open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printer, part of the RepRap project
The RepRap project started in England in 2005 as a University of Bath initiative to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of it ...
File:RepRap Morgan Pro 2.jpg, RepRap Morgan
The RepRap Morgan is an open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printer. The Morgan is part of the RepRap project and has an unusual SCARA arm design. The first Morgan printer was designed by Quentin Harley, a South African engineer (working f ...
File:RepRap Ormerod 2.png, RepRap Ormerod
The RepRap Ormerod is an open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printer and is part of the RepRap project. The RepRap Ormerod is named after the English entomologist Eleanor Anne Ormerod, it was designed by RepRapPro. There have been two vers ...
File:Reprap Darwin.jpg, RepRap Darwin
The RepRap project started in England in 2005 as a University of Bath initiative to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of its own components, but it is now made up of hundreds of collaborators worldwide. RepRap is short for rep''li ...
File:RepRap v2 Mendel.jpg, RepRap Mendel
The RepRap project started in England in 2005 as a University of Bath initiative to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of its own components, but it is now made up of hundreds of collaborators worldwide. RepRap is short for rep''li ...
Software
RepRap was conceived as a complete replication system rather than simply a piece of hardware. To this end the system includes computer-aided design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
(CAD) in the form of a 3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...
system and computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) also known as computer-aided modeling or computer-aided machining is the use of software to control machine tools in the manufacturing of work pieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most ...
(CAM) software and drivers that convert RepRap users' designs into a set of instructions to the RepRap to create physical objects.
Initially, two CAM tool chains were developed for RepRap. The first, called "RepRap Host", was written in Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
by lead RepRap developer Adrian Bowyer. The second, "Skeinforge", was written by Enrique Perez. Both are complete systems for translating 3D computer models into G-code
G-code (also RS-274) is the most widely used computer numerical control (CNC) programming language. It is used mainly in computer-aided manufacturing to control automated machine tools, and has many variants.
G-code instructions are provided to ...
, the machine language that commands the printer.
Later, other programs like slic3r
Slic3r is free software 3D slicing engine for 3D printers. It generates G-code from 3D CAD files (STL or OBJ). Once finished, an appropriate G-code file for the production of the 3D modeled part or object is sent to the 3D printer for the manu ...
, pronterface and Cura
Cura or CURA may refer to:
Music
* ''Cura'' (album), 2018 Keys N Krates release
* Cura (instrument), Turkish musical instrument
Organizations
* Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), Ohio State University
* Institute on Culture, R ...
were created. Recently, the Franklin firmware was created to allow RepRap printers to be used for other purposes such as milling and fluid handling.
RepRapFirmware
(RRF) is another popular firmware used on Duet boards. Due to the open-source nature of the firmware, people are now working on porting th
RepRapFirmware to Marlin boards
like the SKR series.
The closed source KISSlicer and repetier host are also used.
Free and open-source 3-D modeling programs like Blender
A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...
, OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD is a free software application for creating solid 3D computer-aided design (CAD) objects. It is a script-only based modeller that uses its own description language; parts can be previewed, but cannot be interactively modified by mouse i ...
, and FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design (CAD) modeler and a building information modeling (BIM) software application with finite element method (FEM) support. It is intended for mechanical engineering product design bu ...
are preferred in the RepRap community, but almost any CAD or 3D modeling program can be used with the RepRap, as long as it can produce STL files (slic3r also supports .obj and .amf files). Thus, content creators make use of any tools they are familiar with, whether they are commercial CAD programs, such as SolidWorks
SolidWorks is a solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) application published by Dassault Systèmes.
According to the publisher, over two million engineers and designers at more than 165,000 companies we ...
and Autodesk AutoCAD
AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers ...
, Autodesk Inventor
Autodesk Inventor is a computer-aided design application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation developed by Autodesk.
Features
Inventor allows 2D and 3D data integration in a single environment, creating a virt ...
, Autodesk 123D Design
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
, Tinkercad
Tinkercad is a free-of-charge, online 3D modeling program that runs in a web browser. Since it became available in 2011 it has become a popular platform for creating models for 3D printing as well as an entry-level introduction to constructive s ...
, or SketchUp
SketchUp is a suite of subscription products that include SketchUp Pro Desktop, a 3D modeling Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program for a broad range of drawing and design applications — including architectural, interior design, industrial an ...
along with the libre software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
.
Replication materials
RepRaps print objects from ABS, Polylactic acid
Polylactic acid, also known as poly(lactic acid) or polylactide (PLA), is a thermoplastic polyester with backbone formula or , formally obtained by condensation of lactic acid with loss of water (hence its name). It can also be prepared by rin ...
(PLA), Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...
(possibly not all extruders can), HDPE
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyethylene high-density (PEHD) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is sometimes called "alkathene" or "polythene" when used for HDPE pipes. With a high strength-to-density ratio, ...
, TPE TPE may refer to:
Places
* Taipei (ISO 3166 code: TW-TPE), the capital of Taiwan
* " Chinese Taipei" (IOC and FIFA code: TPE), the name used in some international organizations and competitions for Taiwan
Science and Technology
* TPE (cable system ...
and similar thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
s.
Polylactic acid (PLA) has the engineering advantages of high stiffness, minimal warping, and an attractive translucent colour. It is plant-derived and biodegradable.
The mechanical properties of RepRap-printed PLA and ABS have been tested and are equivalent to the tensile strengths of parts made by proprietary printers.
Unlike with most commercial machines, RepRap users are encouraged to experiment with materials and methods, and to publish their results. Methods for printing novel materials (such as ceramics) have been developed this way. In addition, several RecycleBots have been designed and fabricated to convert waste plastic, such as shampoo containers and milk jugs, into inexpensive RepRap filament. There is some evidence that using this approach of distributed recycling is better for the environment and can be useful for creating "fair trade
Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
filament".
In addition, 3D printing products at the point of consumption has also been shown to be better for the environment.
The RepRap project has identified polyvinyl alcohol
Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH, PVA, or PVAl) is a water-soluble synthetic polymer. It has the idealized formula H2CH(OH)sub>''n''. It is used in papermaking, textile warp sizing, as a thickener and emulsion stabilizer in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) ...
(PVA) as a potentially suitable support material to complement its printing process, although massive overhangs can be made by extruding thin layers of the primary printing media as support (these are mechanically removed afterwards).
Printing electronics is a major goal of the RepRap project so that it can print its own circuit boards. Several methods have been proposed:
* Wood's metal
Wood's metal, also known as Lipowitz's alloy or by the commercial names Cerrobend, Bendalloy, Pewtalloy and MCP 158, is a metal alloy that is useful for soldering and making custom metal parts, but which is toxic to touch or breathe vapors from. ...
or Field's metal: low-melting point metal alloys to incorporate electrical circuits into the part as it is being formed.
* Silver/carbon-filled polymers: commonly used to repair circuit boards and are being considered for use for electrically conductive traces.[Simon J. Leigh, Robert J. Bradley, Christopher P. Purssell, Duncan R. Billson, David A. Hutchin]
A Simple, Low-Cost Conductive Composite Material for 3D Printing of Electronic Sensors
/ref>
* Direct extrusion of solder
* Conductive wires: can be laid into a part from a spool during the printing process
Using a MIG
Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" (russian: Российская самолётостроительная корпорация „МиГ“, Rossiyskaya samolyotostroitel'naya korporatsiya "MiG"), commonly known as Mikoyan and MiG, was a Russi ...
welder as a print head a RepRap deltabot
A delta robot is a type of parallel robot that consists of three arms connected to universal joints at the base. The key design feature is the use of parallelograms in the arms, which maintains the orientation of the end effector. In contrast, ...
stage can be used to print metals like steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
.
The RepRap concept can also be applied to a milling machine and to laser welding
Laser beam welding (LBW) is a welding technique used to join pieces of metal or thermoplastics through the use of a laser. The beam provides a concentrated heat source, allowing for narrow, deep welds and high welding rates. The process is frequen ...
.
Construction
Although the aim of the project is for RepRap to be able to autonomously construct many of its own mechanical components soon using fairly low-level resources, several components such as sensors, stepper motors and microcontroller
A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...
s cannot yet be made using the RepRap's 3D printing technology and so have to be produced independently. The plan is to approach 100% replication over a series of versions. For example, from the onset of the project, the RepRap team has explored a variety of approaches to integrating electrically-conductive media into the product. This would allow inclusion of connective wiring, printed circuit board
A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...
s, and possibly motors
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...
in RepRapped products. Variations in the nature of the extruded, electrically-conductive media could produce electrical components with different functions from pure conductive traces, similar to the 1940s sprayed-circuit process Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME), by John Sargrove. A related approach is printed electronics
Printed electronics is a set of printing methods used to create electrical devices on various substrates. Printing typically uses common printing equipment suitable for defining patterns on material, such as screen printing, flexography, gravur ...
. Another non-replicable component is the threaded rods for linear motions. A current research area is in using replicated Sarrus linkages to replace them.
Project members
The "Core team" of the project has included:
* Dr Adrian Bowyer, Former Senior Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Bath
(Virgil, Georgics II)
, mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind
, established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...
* Ed Sells, University of Bath PhD "3D Printing: Towards a Self-Replicating Rapid Prototyping Machine"
* Vik Olliver, the first RepRap volunteer, the first to suggest using PLA as a printing material
* Michael S. Hart (deceased 2011), creator of Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
, Illinois
Goals
The stated goal of the RepRap project is to produce a pure self-replicating device not for its own sake, but rather to put in the hands of individuals anywhere on the planet, for a minimal outlay of capital, a desktop manufacturing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
system that would enable the individual to manufacture many of the artifacts used in everyday life. From a theoretical viewpoint, the project aims to prove the hypothesis that "rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data.
Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...
and direct writing technologies are sufficiently versatile to allow them to be used to make a von Neumann universal constructor
John von Neumann's universal constructor is a self-replicating machine in a cellular automaton (CA) environment. It was designed in the 1940s, without the use of a computer. The fundamental details of the machine were published in von Neumann's ...
".
Education applications
RepRap technology has great potential in educational applications, according to some scholars. RepRaps have already been used for an educational mobile robotics platform. Some authors have claimed that RepRaps offer an unprecedented "revolution" in STEM
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
education.[J. Irwin, J.M. Pearce, D. Opplinger, and G. Anzalone]
The RepRap 3-D Printer Revolution in STEM Education
''121st ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Indianapolis, IN''. Paper ID #8696 (2014). The evidence comes from both the low cost of rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data.
Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...
by students, and the fabrication of low-cost high-quality scientific equipment from open hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and a ...
designs forming open-source labs.
See also
* Additive manufacturing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
* Clanking replicator
A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. The concept of ...
* 3D printing consumer use
* List of 3D printer manufacturers
This is a list of notable manufacturers of 3D printers. 3D printers are a type of robot that is able to print 3D models using successive layers of material.
0–9
* 3D makeR Technologies – Barranquilla, Colombia
* 3D Systems – Rock Hill, S ...
* 3D printing services
* Fused Filament Fabrication
Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known as fused deposition modeling (with the trademarked acronym FDM), or called ''filament freeform fabrication'', is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material. Filam ...
* Self-replicating machine
A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. The concept of ...
* Disruptive technology
* Distributed manufacturing
Distributed manufacturing also known as distributed production, cloud producing and local manufacturing is a form of decentralized manufacturing practiced by enterprises using a network of geographically dispersed manufacturing facilities that are ...
* MyMiniFactory
* Open-source appropriate technology
Open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) is appropriate technology developed through the principles of the open-design movement. Appropriate technology is technology designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, soc ...
* Open Source Lab (book)
* Fab lab
A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...
* MakerBot
MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Proje ...
* Recyclebot
A recyclebot (or RecycleBot) is an open-source hardware device for converting waste plastic into filament for open-source 3D printers like the RepRap. Making DIY 3D printer filament at home is both less costly and better for the environment tha ...
* Thingiverse
Thingiverse is a website dedicated to the sharing of user-created digital design files. Providing primarily free, open-source hardware designs licensed under the GNU General Public License or Creative Commons licenses, the site allows contributor ...
* Fab@Home
Fab@Home is a multi-material 3D printer, launched in 2006. It was one of the first two open-source DIY 3D printers in the world, at a time when all other additive manufacturing machines were still proprietary. The Fab@Home and the RepRap are credi ...
* G-code
G-code (also RS-274) is the most widely used computer numerical control (CNC) programming language. It is used mainly in computer-aided manufacturing to control automated machine tools, and has many variants.
G-code instructions are provided to ...
Notes
References
Replication revolutionary
''New Electronics'', 12 December 2006.
3D printer to churn out copies of itself
Celeste Biever, ''New Scientist'', 18 March 2005
Simon Hooper, CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, 2 June 2005
Self Replicating Robots And The Developing World
KnowProSE.com, 5 June 2005
September 2006
Chinese Growth Hurdles toward a New Great Wall
External links
*
Video of a talk by Adrian Bowyer
on RepRap
{{3d printing
2005 establishments in England
Articles containing video clips
Science and technology in Somerset
University of Bath
Open-source hardware