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Desktop fabricator may kick-start home revolution

17:59 09 January 2007

NewScientist.com news service

Tom Simonite

Enlarge
image

The Fab@Home device can be used to
create 3D objects from various materials (Image: Hod Lipson / Evan
Malone)

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A cheap self-assembly device capable of fabricating 3D objects has been
developed by US researchers. They hope the machine could kick start a revolution
in home fabrication – or "rapid prototyping" – just as early computer kits
sparked an explosion in home computing.

Rapid prototyping machines are already used by designers, engineers and
scientists to create one-off mechanical parts and models. These create objects
by depositing layer upon layer of liquid or powdered material.

These machines typically cost from $20,000 to $1.5 million, says Hod Lipson
from Cornell University, US, who launched the Fab@Home project with PhD student
Evan Malone in October 2006.

The standard version of their Freeform fabricator – or "fabber" – is about
the size of a microwave oven and can be assembled for around $2400 (£1200). It
can generate 3D objects from plastic and various other materials. Full
documentation on how to build and operate the machine, along with all the
software required, are available on the Fab@Home website, and all designs,
documents and software have been released for free.

Many hands

"We are trying to get this technology into as many hands as possible," Malone
told New Scientist. "The kit is designed to be as simple as possible."
Once the parts have been bought, a normal soldering iron and a few screwdrivers
are enough to put it together. "It's probably the cheapest machine of this kind
out there," he adds.

The machine connects to a desktop computer running software that controls its
operation. It then creates objects layer-by-layer by squeezing material from a
mechanically-controlled syringe. A video shows a completed machine constructing a silicone bulb (16MB, wmv format).

Unlike commercial equipment, the Fab@Home machine is also designed to be used
with more than one material. So far it has been tested with silicone, plaster,
play-doh and even chocolate and icing. Different materials can also be used to
make a single object – the control software prompts the user when to load new
material into the machine.

Malone and Lipson hope Fab@Home will grow into a community of enthusiasts who
share designs for 3D objects and even modify the machines for themselves. This
will prompt the emergence of widespread personal fabrication, Lipson hopes.

"We think it's a similar story to computers," he explains. "Mainframes had
existed for years, but personal computing only took off in the late seventies."
A cheap self-assembly computer called the Altair 8800, launched in 1975, sparked
the rapid development of personal computing, he notes: "We hope Fab@Home can do
the same for rapid prototyping."

Copy cat

Adrian Bowyer, who is also working on rapid prototyping machines at Bath
University, in the UK, agrees that the technology could have mass appeal once
the equipment is cheap enough. One of his own machines can even make some of its
own parts (see 3D
printer to churn out copies of itself).

"Fab@Home is an interesting idea; it should be easy for anyone in the world
to build," Bowyer says. "Once you've used one you never want to go back, it's
liberating and enormously fun." Bowyer believes the technology could one day
even replace traditional models of manufacturing.

Bowyer adds that the Fab@Home machine could probably already be used to make
many cheap injection-moulded products already on the market: "I can imagine
people swapping plans of things to make online, or paying to download them
instead of going to the shop."

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Weblinks

http://www.fabathome.org/

http://www.fabathome.org/

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