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| {{Breadcrumb|Digital Fabrication}} | | {{Breadcrumb|Digital Fabrication}} |
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| [[Image:replab.png|center|450px]] | | [[Image:replab.png|center|450px]] |
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| [[RepLab]] is a proposed [[Digital Fabrication|digital fabrication]] workshop. It would be a room with computer-controlled tools that could mould metal into any shape, mould plastic into any shape, print circuit boards, scan 3D shapes, melt down metal to pour it into moulds and do a few other basic tasks in a highly flexible way, with the result that you could make any electronic or mechanical device. In go scrap metal, plastic and silicon - out come bicycles, saucepans, [[LifeTrac|tractors]], medical equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, Internet nodes, [[Solar Turbine|solar turbines]], sculptures, robots and whatever else you can imagine. And one of the things it would be able to make would be another RepLab, as all the fabrication machines would use open-source designs. This would allow the labs to multiply like rabbits.
| | '''RepLab''' is a proposed [[Digital Fabrication|digital fabrication]] workshop. Unlike the [[MIT FabLab]], RepLab is based on open source tools and is thus 1/10th the cost. The first prototype of this is the [[FeF Workshop]], in existnce since 2012. Newer work on this is the smaller, desktop tools - 3D Printers, filament maker, laser cutter, and CNC circuit mill. See 2018 work at https://microfactory.opensourceecology.org/workshops/. The more recent work at OSE revolves around the [[Open Source Microfactory]]. RepLab, Open Source Microfactory, open source fablab - are all synonymous. |
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| [[File:Silicon_chip.jpg|right|290px|thumb|Information is the main ingredient in modern devices; materials are a relatively small part of the puzzle. By making information free, we make the devices nearly free. The RepLab tools take information downloaded for free from the Internet and apply it to some cheap raw materials to produce useful devices. People using RepLab would be able to use, produce and share open-source hardware using repositories of design-information like [[SKDB]].]]The current generation of digital fabrication workshops - Fab Labs - cost about $60k, are not self-replicating and are not open-source. RepLab is the next generation of the [[MIT Fab Lab item list|Fab Lab tools]] - a better, cheaper, self-replicating, open-source version of the Fab Lab, with added capabilities like metal melting from scrap, heavy duty fabrication, and robotic automation. Is this evolution possible?
| | It would be a room with computer-controlled tools that could mold metal into any shape, mold plastic into any shape, print circuit boards, scan 3D shapes, melt down metal and roll metal to any stock steel section. The result is that you could make any electronic or mechanical device. Inputs are scrap metal, plastic and silicon - out come bicycles, saucepans, [[LifeTrac|tractors]], medical equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, Internet nodes, [[Solar Turbine|solar turbines]], sculptures, robots and whatever else you can imagine. And one of the things it would be able to make would be another RepLab, as all the fabrication machines would use open-source designs. This would allow the labs to multiply like rabbits. |
| *We know that cost reduction is feasible via open-source development. [[RepRap]] is 60 times cheaper than commercial equivalents; [[The Liberator]] 10 times cheaper. There are many other examples. It shouldn't be a problem to get to the prices outlined below.
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| * We know that self-replication is feasible – [[RepRap]], [[RepTab]], and now RepLab
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| * There is no limit to what can be open-sourced. If [http://prometheusfusionperfection.com/about/ desktop fusion] and space exploration can be open-sourced, then precision-machining can be too.
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| A RepLab in a third world village could rapidly alleviate poverty by enabling people to solve their own problems, using their own skills and creating local economic activity. Humanity faces significant shortages of medical equipment, agricultural equipment, housing and things like that. A network of RepLabs, growing in numbers exponentially, could greatly alleviate this poverty.
| | This promise has been around since the Star Trek replicator, but to date, only partial or non-open source implementations are available - such as [[OpenDesk]]. [[WikiHouse]] appears to be fully open. And the [[MIT FabLab]] (tools not open source and designs non-commercial). OSE aims to bridge this gap no later than by 2028. |
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| Fifteen tools would do the trick. Just these 15 tools allows you to build all electromechanical devices known to man. Combined with [[Arduino]], digital fabrication can be automated, removing the need for human labour. RepLab will be complete when we have open-source designs for all 15 of these tools meeting the [[OSE Specifications]]: modularity, scalability, flexibility, and replicability. A few tools are complete, a few are still just concepts, most are somewhere in between. See below for details of how the project is progressing.
| | =2023 Update= |
| | Desktop semiconductor foundry actually exists, and costs about $10-20M to implement - see [[Semiconductor Fabrication]]. |
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| Interested? Then join the hundreds of people who have helped us already, by [[Support Open Source Ecology|donating]], by making your own prototypes, by posting useful information or design advice on the wiki or in any way you can.
| | =Design= |
| | *[[RepLab Design]] |
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| There is a lot of work still to do, but we're making powerful progress and with your help we can have the first RepLab fully functional by the end of 2013. Then it will churn out solutions to human needs like communications, medicine, agriculture and housing. It will turn itself into 2 RepLabs, then 4, then 8, then 16, 32, 64... Soon there'll be so many that anyone facing a problem that can be helped by technology will have the means to solve it locally. That's our dream anyway - and we're looking for people like you to dream it with us.
| | =Tools= |
| | *[[RepLab Tools]] |
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| ==Concept==
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| We theorize that a robust, flexible fabrication, open source, multipurpose production technology Fab Lab can be produced and marketed at a price ticket of $5-10k. This assumes [http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=OSE_Specifications OSE Spec], [http://p2pfoundation.net/Neocommercialization neocommercializable], [http://p2pfoundation.net/Crowdfunding crowdfunded], voluneer-developed, [http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:User_Owned at-cost production], [http://p2pfoundation.net/Peer_Trust_Network_Project commons facility]- based product.
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| ==Research==
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| *[http://future.wikia.com/wiki/Desktop_Semiconductor_Foundry Desktop Semiconductor Foundry]
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| *[http://www.physikinstrumente.com/en/products/piezo_tutorial.php Nanopositioning]
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| ==People==
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| *[[Heath Matlock]] | | *[[Heath Matlock]] |
| *[[Leo.dearden]] | | *[[Leo.dearden]] |
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| *[[Sebastien]] | | *[[Sebastien]] |
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| =The tools= | | =Research= |
| {{:RepLab tool list}}
| | *[http://future.wikia.com/wiki/Desktop_Semiconductor_Foundry Desktop Semiconductor Foundry] |
| | | *[http://www.physikinstrumente.com/en/products/piezo_tutorial.php Nanopositioning] |
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| '''Above this is properly formatted. Below this is information that has been gathered, but not organized or formatted.'''
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| =Proposed collaboration=
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| * Hackerspaces. contact[at]nycresistor[dot]com
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| * Fab Labs | |
| * Economic development organizations (1<sup>st</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> world)
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| * Other libre and open source, universal constructor programs
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| * Universities, including MIT and its Center for Bits and Atoms
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| * Agroblogger has asked the most important question affecting humanity today. See [http://thewellrundry.blogspot.com/2009/02/small-scale-manufacturing-practical.html here].
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| Fabulous Friends Smari, Kyrah, Olle, Erik, Edmund, Henri, and James X. Jones:
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| # Who else should we recruit for the organizational team?
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| # Who and how to contact others to find more collaborators?
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| # How much time could you devote to this?
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| # Can you serve on the organizational team?
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| # Can you set up a website for this?
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| # How can we enlist communicators, PR people?
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| # Besides the crowds, who can we tap for funding?
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| # Etc, etc.
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| =Funding=
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| Developers could make a lot of money with a RepLab. As such, they are motivated to fund and support development.
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| Therefore, I propose that we motivate funding by access to the most amazing hackerspace in the world. I propose we build that at [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=455 43 cents per square foot] at Factor e Farm, or anywhere else, and populate it with tools.
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| People can redeem their investment into the project with the redemption of their contribution at $50 per day usage of the entire RepLab. I would propose a generous redemption rate, such as 5, 10-, or lifetime membership to the RepLab based on their level of contribution. The $50 figure is just a first guess. Access to full training and education materials would be given, and the development of this could be a collaborative effort with existing projects.
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| For example, a person contributed $1000 to the project. For that cash, they could melt metal, generate steel, build a tractor with steam engine and hydraulic system for that price.
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| The assumption is that the designs and tooling is available. With about $1M investment, there is no question that this could be done. The entire equipment base can be built for $500k. The R&D for product design would be a dedicated year effort by 10 people, for items of key interest, at $50k/person. So $500k for labour, plus the $500k for the build, is a million.
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| Thus, investment would require 1000 donors at $1000 each. The facility should fit about 20 investors at a time, for a powerhouse development center of open technology. Redemption time per person would be 1 day per $1000, or 3 full years to redeem value of all investors. This is an acceptable return on investment period, and the entire lab can be built in 1 year from the point of availability of funds.
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| We can assume that the demand for digital fabrication tools represents a multi-billion dollar market that is also growing rapidly. As such, the money to fund development is out there. If RepLab is ten times cheaper than any existing fabrication tools, it opens up a massive new market. We should be able to capture at least a few percent of the global digital fabrication market.
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| The fact that RepLab would be self-replicating would mean that, though the first one would cost about $15,000, the second one would cost only the price of recycled scrap metal and plastic. When you consider that machines with a market value of thousands of dollars could be made in the workshop on a weekly basis, the economically disruptive nature of this project becomes clear.
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| I am hoping we could fund it by crowdsourcing from those who gain access to the designs. We can motivate donations by offering use of the developed equipment for making copies of the machines at ridiculously low costs. I would support this myself if I were to gain access to fabrication facilities and training.
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| Other model tool sets:
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/ultimate-tool-buying-guide.yaml ultimate tool buying guide]
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/electronics-workbench electronics workbench] | |
| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/fablab.yaml fablab inventory]
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/techshop.yaml techshop inventory]
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/emachineshop.yaml emachineshop inventory]
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| * See MIT's [http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/index.html Machines That Make] project. Example projects are the under $100 Mantis 3-axis CNC milling machine [http://makeyourbot.org/ Mantis] and the [http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/fabinabox/devmultifab.html Fab In A Box] a multipurpose computer-controlled fabrication machine.
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| [[Image:recasting.jpg]]
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| =Comments=
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| *Q: Have you looked at the [http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/index.html Gingery books]? The lathe and shaper can replace most of a machine shop either with or without CNC capabilities. They are small machines, but sufficient for lots of needs, including bootstrapping.
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| =Strategy=
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| ## Website and funding basket
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| ## Donation strategy - based on use of FeF facilities for low-cost replication
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| ## Required PR materials
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| # Inventory of Existing Hackerspace Equipment
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| ## FeF collaboratory equipment inventory
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| ## Available Fab Lab facilities and equipment
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| ## Hackerspaces
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| # Available design and engineering resources
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| ## Encyclopedias - Fabripedia, mechanisms, industrial processes, chemical processes, food processing, agricultural equipment, equipment design, how things work (collections of mechanisms)
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| ## Engineering and formula handbooks in all fields
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| ## Available free software
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| ## List and Evaluation of collaborative engineering platforms
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| ## OSE Dedicated Project Visits
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| ### Nature of visits
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| ### Infrastructure development
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| # Organizational Team
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| # Summary
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| *'''Level 1'''. Open Source FabLab. Approach in a modular fashion of developing technology 'primitives' that can be used as modules in many applications. Just a plain old opensourcing effort.
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| *'''Level 2'''. Economic significance of RepLab tools comes from the ability of developers to engage in their production. This must be a central feature, as it allows for people to develop free enterprise. The supporters sought should be targeted explicitly for their desire to engage in free enterprise.
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| *'''Level 3'''. The deeper level of economic significance comes from designing free products that can be produced with the available tools. Free business models are a part of that, and link directly into creation of post-scarcity resilient communities.
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| [[Fab Lab Phase 2]], [[Fab Lab Phase 3]], [[Fab Lab Phase 4]], and [[Fab Lab Phase 5]].
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| See introduction to our program in Factor e Live Distillations - Episode 6 - Personal Fabrication:
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| <html>
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| <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MaVdhDbn2rQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MaVdhDbn2rQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
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| </html>
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| See corresponding [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=487 blog post]
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| =Specific Fab Lab Components=
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| #'''Casting and Extrusion''' - plastics, metals, glass, and ceramics. This is for casting engine blocks and other metal parts; for sheet extrusion of plastics (glazing applications); making glass windows or glass blocks; making insulators. Also for making extruded metals and plastics - wire, tubes, rods; as well as insulated wires. Alloys and composites may be mixed with this equipment. See [[Plastic Extrusion & Molding]]
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| =Existing Work= | | =Links= |
| #http://opensourcemachine.org/node/2 - project implementations built by developer - I don't know if anyone replicated this yet; documentation needs development; Factor e Farm engagement - parts list and drawings being developed (6.08) and implementation scheduled for July, 08
| | *[[OSE Workshop]] and [[Workshop]] layout. |
| #http://www.appropedia.org/Callooh - circuit fabrication router - project on paper; code work in progress
| | *[[Open Source Microfactory]] |
| | *[[Basic Workshop]] |
| | *[[Digital Fabrication]] |
| | *[[MIT Fab Lab item list]] |
