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3D Self-Replicating Printer to be Released Under GNU License
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<b>Posted by
<a href="http://slashdot.org/%7EScuttleMonkey/">ScuttleMonkey</a>
on Monday April 07, @06:25PM</b><br>
<strong>from the <b>damned-recursion-damned-recursion</b> dept.</strong>
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<a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/search.pl?tid=117">
<br></a><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/search.pl?tid=137" class="topic2">
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<a href="mailto:rob@computerworld.co.nz" rel="nofollow">Rob O'Neill</a> writes <i>"A Kiwi open source developer is working on a <a href="http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/tech/2F5C3C5D68A380EDCC257423006E71CD">self-replicating 3D printer</a>,
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).'"</i>
</div><br><br>from there website (currently slashdotted)<br><br clear="all">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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Accordingly, the RepRap machine is distributed, at no cost, under the GNU (General Public Licence).<br><br>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.<br><br>"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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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."<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>"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."<br>-- <br>Umbrella Corporation :-<br>"They are the fear within all of that there is a company. The Corporation controlling everything that is Umbrella.<br>A combination of Microsoft and the US Military. At some level there is a board of directors who meet once a<br>
month and decide all of our fates."<br>-- Jeremy Bolt - Producer - Resident Evil : Apocalypse