Interview: RepRap
OpenBusiness interviews Adrian Bowyer, an engineer based at Bath University and creator of the self-producing 3D printer, RepRap.
OpenBusiness: Could you briefly explain to our readers what RepRap is?
Adrian Bowyer: 3D printers are machines that will print three-dimensional objects directly in one shot. All they need as input is a 3D computer model of the object to be printed. There is nothing new about this technology – it has been around for about thirty years. But all commercial 3D printers are very expensive – currently the cheapest are about $20,000.
RepRap is a 3D printer just like the commercial ones, but with two important additions. Firstly, it is designed so it can print the majority of its own parts. And secondly it is open-source and free, so, if someone has a RepRap machine, they can print more RepRaps for their friends. Further, RepRap only costs about $600 to make.
The intention of the RepRap project is to allow everyone to print for themselves many of the goods that they currently have to buy. And that includes printing the printer itself.
OB: When you started RepRap did you conceptualize it from the beginning as an ‘Open project’?
AB: More or less. I had the idea, and then ten minutes later I realised that it had to be open-source. The reason is simple: you can’t sell (or barely even own) anything that copies itself. The simplest approach is to give it to everyone free.
OB: RepRap has a very vibrant community, looking at the fora, why do you think so many people participate? What is your role and of the team that is listed on the website?
AB: A lot of people really like the idea, and become very enthusiastic both when they first discover it, and when they go on to work with it.
The role of the core team is to design the mechanics, electronics and software for the ’standard’ RepRap. But many other people are branching the project and creating different versions, which is what we really want: a broad base of different machines represents a lot of mutants for Darwin’s Law of Evolution to work with.
My role is to scratch my head and to wonder where it’s all going…
OB: To follow up on the previous question: how many people contribute and could you tell us if they fall in different categories. What is the ratio between super active contributors who passionately improve the design and the software and those who post interesting hacks they have done with the RepRap?
AB: There are about ten people who contribute a great deal, and many many more who post lots of interesting and useful hacks. But I can’t really put a number on the ratio, I’m afraid.
OB: You are using the GPL which has been designed for software, but not for hardware. Does this pose any problems?
AB: Not so far. The fact that it works maybe because – even though RepRap is a solid, physical, you-can-pick-it-up machine – we are not dealing with hardware. These days a physical machine is data: the CAD data that defines it. RepRap is more like that than any other machine. The GPL covers all the data. Just as we are defined by our DNA, RepRap is defined by a bunch of computer files.
OB: You can hear of more and more projects describing themselves as ‘Open Hardware’. Do you think this will become more mainstream and where do you see challenges/limitations?
AB: Yes – I do think it will become more mainstream for the reason implicit in my last answer: hardware is data these days. That’s what defines it. And, given that fact, and the Internet as a distribution system, the advantages that Open-Source have brought to software will also increasingly be applied to hardware.
The challenges (though not limitations) that I foresee are those that will come from big industry when their sales start falling as their customers begin making for themselves much of what they used to buy from that industry. But – as the music distribution business has so clearly demonstrated – if an industry (no matter how big) starts to view its customers as the enemy, then the customers win. And the (now erstwhile…) customers don’t even win in the end; they win almost instantly.
OB: Finally, what is your vision for RepRap? Its been described aptly as ‘China on your desktop’. Do you think in the near future thousands of hobbyists will start home production of everything from coffee cubs to chairs?
AB: We estimate (though this is probably not a very accurate figure) that there are about 2,500 RepRaps and RepRap derivatives in the world. That’s from a total of four at the start of 2008. So there are almost certainly thousands of hobbyists doing exactly that. Things will get interesting when it becomes hundreds of millions, and to get there is my vision for the project.
Comments
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
