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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. 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.


[[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?
==Design==
*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.
*[[RepLab Design]]
* We know that self-replication is feasible – [[RepRap]], [[RepTab]], and now RepLab
* 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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.


==Concept==
==Concept==
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.
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.


==Research==
==Research==

Revision as of 02:33, 29 September 2011

Main > Digital Fabrication

Replab.png

RepLab is a proposed 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, tractors, medical equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, Internet nodes, 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.

Design

Concept

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 OSE Spec, neocommercializable, crowdfunded, voluneer-developed, at-cost production, commons facility- based product.

Research


Tools


People


See Also

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