3D Self-Replicating Printer to be Released Under GNU License 313
Rob O'Neill writes "A Kiwi open source developer is working on a self-replicating 3D printer, RepRap, to be made available under the GNU license. 'The 3D printer works by building components up in layers of plastic, mainly polylactic acid (PLA), which is a bio-degradable polymer made from lactic acid. The technology already exists, but commercial machines are very expensive. They also can't copy themselves, and they can't be manipulated by users, says Vik Olliver. RepRap has a different idea. The team, which is spread over New Zealand, the UK and the US, develops and gives away the designs for its much cheaper machine, which also has self-copying capabilities. It wants to make the machine available to anybody — including small communities in the developing world, as well as people in the developed world, says Olliver. Accordingly, the RepRap machine is distributed, at no cost, under the GNU (General Public License).'"
Real headline (Score:2, Informative)
Text (Score:5, Informative)
Based in the Waitakeres, in West Auckland, software developer and artist Vik Olliver is part of a team developing an open-source, self-copying 3D printer. The RepRap (Replicating Rapid-prototyper) printer can replicate and update itself. It can print its own parts, including updates, says Olliver, who is one of the core members of the RepRap team.
The 3D printer works by building components up in layers of plastic, mainly polylactic acid (PLA), which is a bio-degradable polymer made from lactic acid. The technology already exists, but commercial machines are very expensive. They also can't copy themselves, and they can't be manipulated by users, says Olliver.
RepRap has a different idea. The team, which is spread over New Zealand, the UK and the US, develops and gives away the designs for its much cheaper machine, which also has self-copying capabilities. It wants to make the machine available to anybody -- including small communities in the developing world, as well as people in the developed world, says Olliver.
Accordingly, the RepRap machine is distributed, at no cost, under the GNU (General Public Licence).
RepRap's open-source project aims to keep on improving the machine. "So it can do what people want it to do", says Olliver. Improvements will go back to users and, in this way, the machine as a whole evolves, he says. The idea of evolution is important, he adds. The device Olliver is creating now will probably bear very little resemblance to the device that will appear on everybody's desks in the future, he says.
"We want to make sure that everything is open, not just the design and the software you control it with, but the entire tool-chain, from the ground up," he says.
Olliver works for Catalyst IT, a Wellington-based open-source business system provider. He is fortunate enough to get "Google-time" from the company, which means he is allowed to work on his own research projects one day a week -- just like employees at Google. This has led to considerable developments in the RepRap project in the last six months, his says.
New features include, for example, heads that can be changed for different kinds of plastic. A head that deposits low melting-point metal is in development, he says. The metal melts at a lower temperature than that at which plastic melts, which means the metal can be put inside plastic, says Olliver. "That means, in theory, we could build structures like motors."
RepRap also allows people to build circuits in 3D, as well as various shapes, with the result that objects, such as a cell phone, don't have to be flat, he says.
There are at least seven copies of the RepRap machine in the world that Olliver knows about. The 3D printer also allows for a new and fascinating way of communicating: Olliver can design something at home in New Zealand, which then appears on another researcher's desk, in Bath, in the UK, or the other way around.
At the moment, the RepRap uses two different kinds of plastic -- PLA, a relatively rigid plastic, which is ideal for making objects such as corner brackets; and a more flexible plastic for making, for example, iPod cases, he says.
But having the machine copy itself is the most useful thing the team can make it do, and that is the primary goal of the project, says Olliver. However, it can also be used to make other things, such as wine glasses -- definitely water-tight, he adds -- and plastic parts for machines. When Computerworld talked to him, Olliver had just printed out a small part to fix his blender.
"We know that people are going to use the printer to try to make weapons [and] sex toys and drug paraphernalia," he says. "This is obviously not what we're hoping they are going to build. We are hoping they are going to build more and better RepRaps."
so last year (Score:5, Informative)
Re:so last year (Score:5, Informative)
Re:GNU license? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Really? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Real headline (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Real headline (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think that's close to being the case, though.
Official links (Score:5, Informative)
http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome [reprap.org]
Here's their main blog, where you can keep track of progress on RepRap:
http://blog.reprap.org/ [reprap.org]
wikipedia link (Score:4, Informative)
Not a facsimile machine (Score:5, Informative)
I guess you could build some sort of scanner-type machine that would scan an object and create a digital description of it. Then maybe you could get generation-based degradation, if you really want to. ;)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Also as to the applicability of the GPL to a device, It is the plans, designs, and instructions which are GPL'ed and, Yes copyright has been used in attempts to control physical device distribution(Epson printer cartridges I believe).
Re:Really? (Score:4, Informative)
HELP REPRAP! (Score:3, Informative)
They ain't dead yet (Score:1, Informative)
I have seen two kiwis mating, has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. They didn't seem to have the slightest idea how to go about it. Male gets on top facing backwards at first...
The much larger Moa (in several varieties and sizes) is the one that is extinct.
Deterioration in later copies (Score:5, Informative)
If they actually start making the hard parts, they'll run into some of the tough problems of machine shop work. A classic problem: how to make a leadscrew more precise than the one you've got. If you just make a new one using an existing one for positioning, each generation of copy will be worse than the previous one.
Maudsley solved this problem between 1800 and 1810, with his "screw-originating machine". This makes a very accurate screw, slowly and in a soft metal. This screw is then used in a thread-cutting lathe to make second generation leadscrews that aren't quite as good. So most screws are "descended" from a reference screw, and are only a few generations removed from it.
There are other ways to approach the problem today, typically using some form of position feedback separate from the drive mechanism. For a self-replicating machine that doesn't get precision parts from an external source, position measurement via absolute means, like interferometery, as in a ruling engine, might be necessary.
Right now, the RepRap people are punting on the generation loss problem, because they're only making the easy parts. If they're serious, they'll need to solve it.
Update and GPL note (Score:2, Informative)
GPL Note: Yes, we know the GPL doesn't cover hardware. That's why we're releasing hardware "In the spirit of" the GPL. We know about TAPR but it's not right for us at this point. It's complicated.
Re:One Question (Score:4, Informative)
For example, something one tenth the size will have 1/1000 the mass but 1/100 the strength. Thus from the smaller scale it would seem to be ten times stronger. Hence you can look up SEM pictures of microcantelievers where a flat plane can stand out, hundreds of times longer than it is thick, with no support. How would you wind coils out of wires that seem to be getting stiffer and stiffer?
Fluids are even more interesting. Viscosity will seem to increase as you shrink down, as the same speed of movement corresponds to much more rapid shearing. There are also surface effects; At the scale of small insects, the surface tension formed by a molecule-think water layer is strong enough to support small, flat pieces of steel. It would be harder and harder to force the molten plastic through the nozzle.
Heat diffusion. The RepRap has to melt the plastic to form it, right? The smaller you get, the more rapidly heat will diffuse out of its hopper and into the surrounding materials.