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Project Status: RepRap makes a complete set of all the printed parts it needs to copy itself. See the main and builders' blogs for details and more news.
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"Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop." "The promise of advanced fabrication technology that can copy itself is a truly remarkable concept with far reaching implications." "[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..." |
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What is RepRap?
Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D
printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes
real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust,
think Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You
could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make
most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine
that could copy itself.
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 component 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 €400). 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 make another and give it to a friend...
The RepRap project became widely known after a large press coverage in March 2005, though the idea goes back to a paper on the web written by Adrian Bowyer on 2 February 2004.
We hope to announce self-replication this year - 2008 - though the machine that will do it - RepRap Version 1.0 "Darwin" - can be built now - see the Make RepRap Darwin link there or on the left.
Glossary
- RepRap - n. any open-source rapid prototyping machine that can manufacture a significant fraction of its own parts; v.t. (in lower case: to reprap) to make something in a RepRap machine.
- RepStrap - n. any open-source rapid prototyping machine that doesn't make its own parts, but is intended to make parts for a RepRap.
- reprapper - n. a person engaged in making or using RepRaps or RepStraps.
- reprapable - adj. capable of being made in a RepRap machine.
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Revisions: | r1.136 | > | r1.135 | > | r1.134 | Total page history | Backlinks | Refresh