RepRap

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Welcome to RepRap.org

TEDxEWB Talk: Adrian Bowyer at Imperial College, London, introduces RepRap

RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine.

RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials. It also means that - if you've got a RepRap - you can print lots of useful stuff, and you can print another RepRap for a friend...

RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. We are using 3D printing to do this, but if you have other technologies that can copy themselves and that can be made freely available to all, then this is the place for you too.

Reprap.org is a community project, which means you are welcome to edit most pages on this site, or better yet, create new pages of your own. Our community portal and New Development pages have more information on how to get involved. Use the links below and on the left to explore the site contents. You'll find some content translated into other languages.

RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution. It has become the most widely-used 3D printer among the global members of the Maker Community.

RepRap was voted the most significant 3D-printed object in 2017. That is to say people think that the most important thing you can print in a 3D printer is another 3D printer - the whole reason for the RepRap project. Also in 2017 RepRap's creator Adrian Bowyer was awarded the 3D Printing Industry's Outstanding Contribution to 3D Printing Award and was inducted into the 3D Printing Hall of Fame. In 2019 Adrian was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for RepRap.

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The first RepRap machine is on display at the Science Museum in London

RepRap state-of-the-art is well represented by John Mulac's Mulbot and Mike Jeffs' ReprapMJ.

This pie chart illustrates RepRap influence just a few years after its first replication. It is now, directly or indirectly, the origin of the great majority of 3D printers made in the World.

3D-printing-user-chart.png
Source: Moilanen, J. & Vadén, T.: Manufacturing in motion: first survey on the 3D printing community, Statistical Studies of Peer Production (2013).


A family using one RepRap to print only 20 domestic products per year (about 0.02% of the products available) can expect to save between $300 and $2000:

"...the unavoidable conclusion from this study is that the RepRap is an economically attractive investment for the average US household already."

Source: B.T. Wittbrodt et al., Life-cycle economic analysis of distributed manufacturing with open-source 3-D printers, Mechatronics.













About | Development | Community | RepRap Machines | Resources | Policy


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If you want to build a RepRap, click here for details of some of the more popular designs. There is also a legacy section at the end for our older machines so you can see how the designs have evolved.