Limits of Distributed Manufacturing

Here are comments on the shortcomings of the maker movement (and traditional industry) in terms of economic impact in distributed manufacturing:

1. Lack of quality curated design repositories: There are few to none good open product designs that can be produced readily with well-documented or replicable open source production engineering. OSE stuff included - we're missing the last steps of distributed production engineering which we are just now completing. For example,
2. Lack of uniform production engineering using open source tools: There are few to none (depending on how the industrial grade of a tool is measured) quality open source, replicable tools that get you to the industrial productivity on a small scale. For example, the 3D printer still needs a high temperature enclosure (170C) and a rubber-optimized 3mm extruder for 3D printers to access industrial productivity.
3. Enclosure: Commons enclosure of projects once they reach a productization stage. Once people develop products, many are no longer open source.
4. Productization Gaps: Marketing and distribution infrastructures have not been developed for open source products. OSE is working on addressing this with the STEAM Camps and Incentive Challenges.
5. Education Gaps: Open source toolchain training is missing, so many people don't have access to . Fab Academy comes close, but they rely primarily on proprietary toolchains. We're working to address this with the STEAM Camps.

Specifically for 3D printing technology:

1. Absence of open source 3D printers with high-temperature (170C) print chamber
2. Lack of reliable open source filament production/recycling infrastructure knowhow
3. Lack of a rubber-optimized 3D printer extruder for 3mm filament

Links

• Fablab Connect - [1] - can get grants, but projects are not open source.