This affordable 3-D printer can print itself!

When Adrian Bowyer and Vik Olliver decided to try their hand at creating a printer that could print tangible, 3D objects, they decided that the most important thing it could be designed to do would be to print copies of itself. Using a conventional 3D printer (called a "rapid prototyper"), they had it construct the parts necessary to assemble their own, self-replicating design. Called the RepRap (short for "Replicating Rapid-prototyper"), their first release version (dubbed "Darwin") was able to print out the parts needed to construct a second, "child" RepRap machine. At 2pm on May 29th, 2008, the child machine was constructed at Bath University in the UK... and a few minutes later it was already churning out the parts to build its own, "grandchild" copy of the machine.

While rapid-prototyping technology has been in development for years, it's been primarily used by companies to quickly print out one-off new designs, either to see how they work or to build a cast around for use in manufacturing techniques like molten metal casting or injection-molding using plastics. Prototypers are being streamlined to eventually fit on your desktop, but the technology is new and the production techniques - not to mention the price markup - will put them out of the price range for consumers for a quite a while - they go for around €30,000 (or over $42,600). So the developers of RepRap decided to create something they could give to the world - a rapid-prototyper that could be constructed cheaply, and then be set to make the parts necessary to copy itself.

Beause RepRap has independent, not-for-profit developers all over the world, it can develop far more rapidly than conventional technologies. It isn't stifled by the one-at-a-time bottlenecks inherent in the corporate process, nor is it limited to focussing on market-based research and advertising gimmickry. Developers decide what they want, and then develop it - publishing their results for all to share in. In this, the RepRap project does for hardware development what the open-source movement has done for software - removes the barriers and speed bumps, and lets technically-oriented people do what they do better and faster. And everyone benefits. You might think of RepRap as the hardware equivalent to the Linux movement. I really can't help but look at some of RepRap's earliest, somewhat clumsy, results, and think back to the quality of computer graphics when they first started coming into the home in 1985. They were pixellated, and they only had about four colors. A little over twenty years later, and look at the gorgeous graphics our computers can display on our desktops - on a flat screen, no less! Twenty years from now, and RepRap could be producing nanotechnology in the home. Indeed, the same amount of innovation would take significantly less time, because RepRap is spawning from a growing network of enthusiasts, rather than from the business agenda of corporations.

With its ability to break down the barriers between corporate manufacturing and individual users, RepRap is capable of turning most of the materially-based world on its ear, and allowing people to prosper as they never have before. A community of RepRap users could easily develop a small loom that could be printed with a RepRap and controlled with a laptop - at which point users could create their own weaving designs and share them freely through the internet. Design a computer-controlled wool spinner that could be made with RepRap, and anyone could turn wool into cloth - the kind of thing that could allow someone to live off the grid, or jump-start the economies of developing countries in the Third World. We can design our own machines for around the house, from food processors to vacuums to furniture. RepRap allows people to build a prototype, cast a mold from it, and make machine tools by pouring molten metal into it. It can allow people to create the parts and pieces to grow crops entirely automated by a laptop computer - or parts for a computer-driven home security system. Mechanics wouldn't have to wait for days on the arrival of an obscure part. Once RepRaps begin working with other materials and get their precision down, we'll be able to craft equipment for all kinds of sciences - biochemistry, electronics, agriculture, perhaps even working with DNA at home. Imagine going online to download the schematics for clothing. Or a watch. Or even someday, a car!

We already have raw materials all around us - the plastic in bottles, the aluminum in cans, and of course all the processed raw materials that make it into the obsolete computers we already throw away. What if we could take plastic bottles, throw them into the blender, run the resulting pulp through a RepRap-made recycling unit, and use that standardized plastic material to make new items, right in our homes? The engineers at the RepRap project are hard at work on that - at the moment the difficulty is keeping air bubbles from getting into the resulting plastic and making it unusable. But with the world-wide internet-based development at RepRap from interested individuals working together, the solution can't be far off. Imagine not only not dumping as much waste in landfills, but actively digging them up as treasure-troves of raw materials! The RepRap could very easily help us turn lead into gold.

The first model of RepRap, Darwin, has already been put out, and can already produce parts, has its software written to control it, is available in kit form, and is gathering a thriving community of online developers. The community is already hard at work developing the next model, to be called Mendel. Mendel will have the ability to use different print heads that can print in different materials, and one of these will be able to print conductive material so that Mendel will be able to build electrical circuitry right into the items it makes. It will probably also feature a turntable, to allow it to do circular projects more easily. In addition, the release will also have a website up where the RepRap online community can share schematic files that will tell Darwin and Mendel how to create various objects. It will also attempt to reduce the number of extra, non-RepRappable parts are needed to build one - not counting nuts and bolts, 60% of the parts needed to build a Darwin can be made by another Darwin already. The community plans to increase that even further.

Beyond the release of Mendel, the community plans to use Mendel's newfound ability to use different write heads to print in different materials such as ceramics, wax, metals, and others. Rapid development of Mendel is already underway - have a look at its ability to pick up and set down different write heads in this video!

The full mechanical kit can be purchased for £345 (about $490) from BitsFromBytes, and the complete electronics kit can be had from the RepRap Store for $150 (about £84). BitsFromBytes also sells a kit for the extruder mechanism for £48.50 (about $87). All told, the Darwin model of the RepRap sells for £477.50, or about $727 - a far cry from the £23,777 / $42,600 pricetag that conventional, non-self-replicating 3D printers go for. The RepRap store is not-for-profit, and it's part of the philosophy of RepRap to allow people to own them cheaply and easily - in fact, it's customary to give two of them away when you make one. While the RepRap certainly isn't ready to be bought off the shelf at a typical computer store, anyone you know who is technologically-inclined would love to hear about this - and could presumably pick up a fair amount of money using their RepRap to produce complete, off-the-rack models for beginners. From its start as an idea in 2004, to its first successful child machine in late May of 2008, RepRap is pioneering technology just as fast as it's replicating parts, and is continually innovating its own design.

After all, that's one of the things it does best.

As of October, 2009 Mendel is up and printing - have a look!  It'll soon be available to the public.  They've got the size down to something that can be carried in one hand, while also increasing the available work surface.