Fab lab

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Introduction

A Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small-scale workshop with computer controlled tools with the aim to make "almost anything". (Wikipedia). Fab labs are a disruptive technology.

Fab labs can have different aims, e.g. rapid prototyping or low cost and on-demand manufacturing from "open source designs" for both hobbyist and serious use. Both purposes include an idea of empowering individuals to create devices that are adapted to specific needs.

The Fab@Home project emphasizes freedom of design and innovation of a Solid Freeform Fabrication system:

Universal manufacturing embodied as today’s freeform fabrication systems has – like universal computers – the potential to transform human society to a degree that few creations ever have. The ability to directly fabricate functional custom objects could transform the way we design, make, deliver and consume products. But not less importantly, rapid prototyping technology has the potential to redefine the designer. By eliminating many of the barriers of resource and skill that currently prevent ordinary inventors from realizing their own ideas, fabbers can “democratize innovation” [1,2,3]. Ubiquitous automated manufacturing can thus open the door to a new class of independent designers, a marketplace of printable blueprints, and a new economy of custom products. Just like the Internet and MP3’s have freed musical talent from control of big labels, so can widespread RP (Rapid Prototyping) divorce technological innovation from the control of big corporations. (retrieved 23 June 2009)

In a similar way IFTF, in the Future of Making Map argues:

Two future forces, one mostly social, one mostly technological, are intersecting to transform how goods, services, and experiences—the “stuff” of our world—will be designed, manufactured, and distributed over the next decade. An emerging do-it-yourself culture of “makers” is boldly voiding warranties to tweak, hack, and customize the products they buy. And what they can’t purchase, they build from scratch. Meanwhile, flexible manufacturing technologies on the horizon will change fabrication from massive and centralized to lightweight and ad hoc. These trends sit atop a platform of grassroots economics—new market structures developing online that embody a shift from stores and sales to communities and connections. (retrieved 23 June 2009)

Finally, the topic of the LIFT France 0.9 conference was Hands-on future. According to Laurent Haug,

What happened in the software industry - young guys waking up with an idea, ending up changing the world from their sofa like it happened with Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. - is now happening in the tangible world. Things like Arduino are enabling hackers and creators all around the globe, and what was possible with software (easily assemble code to create new applications) is now possible with objects. The conference program was centered around three main topics:

  • Changing Things: Towards objects that are not just “smart” and connected, but also customizable, hackable, transformable, fully recyclable… Towards decentralized and multipurpose manufacturing, or even home fabrication…
  • Changing Innovation: Towards continuous and networked innovation, emerging from users as well as entrepreneurs, from researchers as well as activists…
  • Changing the Planet: Towards a “green design” that reconnects global environmental challenges with growth, but also with human desire, pleasure, beauty and fun ...

The first Fab Lab emerged at MIT under the direction of N. Gershenfeld. It included a laser cutter, a miniature milling machine and jigsaw cutting machine.

The Fab Lab movement also is anchored in ecological thinking. “Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop” (Chris di Bona). Materials used are no much polluting and there is no transportation cost.

History

1940's
Birth of numerical control, i.e. machine tools controlled by code.
mid 1950's
Birth of special purpose programming languages for computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools.
end 1950's - mid 1960's
Birth of interfaces of Computer-aided design (CAD) with CNC.
1970
Mohamed Hashish created a technique to add abrasives to the water jet cutter
1986
3D-Printing
2005
Neil Gershenfeld's et al. MIT class 863.04 - how to make (almost) anything.
2006
The RepRap prototype
2007
Neil Gershenfeld and Joe Jacobson MIT class How To Make Something That Makes (almost) Anything.

Hardware tools

There exist several popular fab lab technologies, some of which are described below in more details. Most fall in the category of solid freeform fabrication tools and that include:

  • 3D printers
  • Laser cutters
  • CNC machines
  • Automated paper cutters
  • 3D Scanners (for replication)
  • Laser sintering

Another set of toolkits are electronics platforms like Arduino.

A fabber (or digital fabricator) refers to a "factory in box" (i.e. one of the above tools) that can create things automatically from digital data. The Digital Fabrication Portal distinguishes three fundamental kinds of fabbers, according to the way they operate on their raw material:

  • Subtractive: Material is carved away from a solid block, such as by milling, turning, or electrodischarge machining (EDM). Subtractive fabbers have been automated since the late 1940s, and are often called computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machines.
  • Additive: Material is successively added into place to build up the desired object. The methods used include selective curing, selective sintering, and aimed deposition. The first commercial additive fabber was introduced in 1987. [This includes the 3D printers that became very cheap and popular in recent years] (DKS).
  • Formative: Material is neither added nor removed, but opposing pressures are applied to the material to modify its shape. Techniques in this category, including automated bending and reconfigurable molding, are under development.
  • Hybrid: Processes from two or more of the above categories are combined. Sheet-based fabbers, which cut and laminate successive layers of sheet material, are hybrid subtractive/additive devices. A combination CNC punch press and press brake is a hybrid subtractive/formative fabber. (retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

Solid Freeform Fabrication overview

Fab@Home Fabber model 1, 2007: Source fabathome.org

“Freeform Fabrication is a collection of manufacturing technologies with which parts can be created without the need for part-specific tooling. A computerized model of the part is designed. It is sliced computationally, and layer information is sent to a fabricator that reproduces the layer in a real material” (Laboratory of Freeform Fabrication, UTexas, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)). Commercial "low-cost" free form fabricators range between 20'000 and 300'000 $US. Open source kits are much cheaper (see below)

Currently, low-end commercial 3D prototypers are still costly for individuals who want to "play" or schools. On June 2009, the cheapest 3D printer we found cost $5000 from Desktop Factory, the next one was "Dimension uPrint" and cost £12000. In addition you need to buy materials and solidifiers. According to [ Wikipedia] (retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)), “Prototypes made by these low-end commercial machines cost around US$2 per cubic centimeter to fabricate. The RepRap Project is on track to produce a 3D prototyping machine and free and open source accompanying software that costs about US$400 to build and which can fabricate objects at a cost of about US$0.02 per cubic centimeter.”

Low End Solid Freeform Fabrication tools, also called rapid prototype machines are usually a kind of 3D printers. “3D printing is a unique form of fabrication that is related to traditional rapid prototyping technology. A three dimensional object is created by layering and connecting successive cross sections of material. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable and easier to use than other additive fabrication technologies. While prototyping dominates current uses, 3D printers offers tremendous potential for retail consumer uses.” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

There exist various kinds of 3D printers, e.g. Inkjet where layers of powder (e.g. plaster, corn starch or resins) are selectively bonded or photopolymer machines that fix liquids with an UV flood lamp. A low-cost fabber, typically includes a kind of "gun" that heats up polymer plastic from a filament and then extrudes a fine stream to build things.

Low cost fabbers

Very low-cost non-proprietary 3D printers are often referred to as Fabbers. The Fab@Home project (retrieved June 2009) “is a project dedicated to making and using fabbers - machines that can make almost anything, right on your desktop. [...] Fabbers (a.k.a. 3D printers or rapid prototyping machines) are a relatively new form of manufacturing that builds 3D objects by carefully depositing materials drop by drop, layer by layer. With the right set of materials and a geometric blueprint, you can fabricate complex objects that would normally take special resources, tools and skills if produced using conventional manufacturing techniques. A fabber can allow you to explore new designs, email physical objects to other fabber owners, and most importantly - set your ideas free. Just as MP3s, iPods and the Internet have freed musical talent, we hope that blueprints and fabbers will democratize innovation.”

RepRap self-replicating 3D printer

RepRap is another well know project. “RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it's accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can use it to make another and give that one to a friend...” (What is RepRap?, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

Until recently, fabbers had to be assembled by the end-user using open designs and low-level parts, i.e. many many days of bricolage. However, some fabbers now can be bought commercially as easy kits or fully assembled. E.g. in June 2009, the NextFab Store sold kits for about $3000 and assembled Fab@Homes for about $4000. Bits from Byte sold a ReRap kit (Version 3 - RapMan) for about £750.

Cutters

Laser cutters and engravers
Laser cutters and engravers can process any non-metal material (e.g. acrylic, ceramics, cork, fiberglass, glass, plastic, leather, paper, stone, wood). “Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, which is used in the production line and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high power laser, by computer, at the material to be cut. The material then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, [1] leaving an edge with a high quality surface finish. Industrial laser cutters are used to cut flat-sheet material as well as structural and piping materials.” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).
Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
“Laminated object manufacturing (LOM) is a rapid prototyping system developed by Helisys Inc. (Cubic Technologies is now the successor organization of Helisys) In it, layers of adhesive-coated paper, plastic, or metal laminates are successively glued together and cut to shape with a knife or a laser cutter.” ([2])
Plasma cutters
“Plasma cutting is a process that is used to cut steel and other metals of different thicknesses (or sometimes other materials) using a plasma torch. In this process, an inert gas (in some units, compressed air) is blown at high speed out of a nozzle; at the same time an electrical arc is formed through that gas from the nozzle to the surface being cut, turning some of that gas to plasma. The plasma is sufficiently hot to melt the metal being cut and moves sufficiently fast to blow molten metal away from the cut. Plasma can also be used for plasma arc welding and other applications.” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

Plasma cutters come in various sizes are available from $3000.

Water jet cutter
“A water jet cutter is a tool capable of slicing into metal or other materials using a jet of water at high velocity and pressure, or a mixture of water and an abrasive substance. The process is essentially the same as water erosion found in nature but greatly accelerated and concentrated. It is often used during fabrication or manufacture of parts for machinery and other devices” (Wikipedia, retrieved 21:22, 23 June 2009 (UTC).)

According to Wikipedia, water jets can cut with a with of about 1mm and can cut materials such as rubber, foam, plastics, composites, stone, glass, tile, metals, food, paper and much more. Also, water jets can cut material without much harming or changing the materials' structures since there is no heat. I also can be considered a green technology, since it doesn't produce harmful waste. Water and abrasives can be recycled.

Selective Laser sintering

“In the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process, three-dimensional parts are created by fusing (or sintering) powdered thermoplastic materials with the heat from an infrared laser beam.” (Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), SLS Prototype, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

“Selective laser sintering is an additive rapid manufacturing technique that uses a high power LASER (for example, a carbon dioxide laser) to fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass powders into a mass representing a desired 3-dimensional object. The laser selectively fuses powdered material by scanning cross-sections generated from a 3-D digital description of the part” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

This technology looks rather complex and expensive, compared to low-end 3D printers...

Stereolithography (SLA)

“Stereolithography is a common rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping technology for producing parts with high accuracy and good surface finish. A device that performs stereolithography is called an SLA or Stereolithography Apparatus.” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

SLA is too expensive for fab labs (between $100,000 and $400,000)

CNC mills

A milling machine (fr. "fraiseuse") is a machine tool used for the shaping of metal and other solid materials. It uses rotating cutters to cut stuff from a workpiece. In more sophisticated milling machines, both the cutters and the workpiece can be rotated in three axis.

3D Scanners

An alternative to designing objects is to scan them. 3D scanners can be bought for about $3000.

Electronic kits

Arduino

Arduino “is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).” (Arduino Home Page, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

Software

File formats

See also Computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM)

The .STL file format
“An StL (“StereoLithography”) file is a triangular representation of a 3-dimensional surface geometry. The surface is tessellated or broken down logically into a series of small triangles (facets). Each facet is described by a perpendicular direction and three points representing the vertices (corners) of the triangle. These data are used by a slicing algorithm to determine the cross sections of the 3-dimensional shape to be built by the fabber” (The StL Format, retrieved 17:25, 24 June 2009 (UTC)).

CAD/CAM Software

See also Computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM)

  • ReplicatorG is the software that will drive your CupCake CNC, RepRap machine, or generic CNC machine. You feed it GCode, it parses the GCode, and then controls your machine via a driver. Its cross platform, easily installed, and is based on the familiar Arduino / Processing environments.

Fab Labs in education

Firstly, Fab labs were born in higher education (Gershenfeld:2005; ) and most of these are sponsored by academic institutions. Of course, technical hobbyists always did exist and and in many countries, schools do offer facilities and even classes for all sorts of bricolage.

Links

Fab Lab portals and overviews

Wikipedia articles
Overviews

Numerical control

Cheap open source 3D printers

3D printer as geek campfire (Source:[1])

“We didn’t know it, but it turns out that sitting around a table with folks while the MakerBot Cupcake CNC is puttering away and doing its thing and making objects appear where there were none before is really a great community activity! One of the gatherers mentioned that it felt like a geek campfire and it did!” (Pre Pettis, retrieved 08:57, 25 June 2009 (UTC))

Below are the fabbers most popular in June 2009. See also the links in the #Fab_Lab_portals_and_overviews general section above. All organizations and companies providing designs and selling parts or fully assembled tools do have web sites with a lot of information.

Fab@Home 3D printer
  • Fab@Home, is a project dedicated to making and using fabbers - machines that can make almost anything, right on your desktop. This website provides everything you need to know in order to build or buy your own simple fabber, and to use it to print three dimensional object. Hardware designs and software on this website are open source.
  • Designs are available from the Design Library
Reprap 3D printer
Cupcake (MakerBot Industries)
Cupcake is a 3D printer that works with four kinds of plastic, e.g. ABS (Lego-like) and HDPE (milk-jug like). The founder of this company also is involved in the RepRap research project.
Other links

Commercial entry-level 3D printers

Laser and plasma cutters

Water jets

CNC mills

Selective Laster Sintering (SLS)

Stereolithography (SLA)

Arduino

New technology mags, blogs and communities

Fab Labs

Bibliography

  • Gershenfeld, Neil, A., (2005) FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop – From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-02745-8.
  • Editors' Review (2005). Desktop Factories - FAB The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop -- from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication By Neil Gershenfeld, Basic Books, Business Week, May 2 2005.
  • Gershenfeld N. Think Globally, fabricate locally, PrincipalVoices.com. PDF (reprint)
  • Institute of the Future (2009). The future of making, PDF
  • Jenweill, Mark, Fab Labs unshackle imaginations, USA Today, 11/6/2005.
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