April 28 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2020 Rating: 8 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
The picture of the tiny device below appears relatively
harmless, right? Well, if you are in the manufacturing business,
you could be looking at the most disruptive long-term threat to
your industry. That is because this little device – dubbed RepRap –
is a replicating rapid-prototype printer. 
I have written
extensively about rapid prototype manufacturing before but the
RepRap is a beast of different sort – it can theortically replicate
and update itself. In other words, not only can the machine print
out some basic physcial objects – such as cups, plates and various
spare parts – it can also print out a copy of itself.
To gain a true appreciation of why this is so potentially
disruptive to the manufacturing industry, I’d encourage you to read
this recent article from ComputerWorld which
explains how the RepRap is now an open-source project. This
suggests that smart people from all around the world will continue
to improve upon the device—for free.
This has two huge implications. First, as more people improve
the RepRap, it will be able to “print” an ever increasing number of
objects. Today, only basic objects can be “printed.” In the near
future, however, more complex devices such as cellphones, computer
circuits and perhaps even flexible polymer solar cells will be able
to be printed from the comfort of a person’s home. (cont.)
This, in turn, leads to the second and much larger implication –
which is that a number of products might some day be able to be
printed for free. This would be a paradigm shift of historic
proportions. For example, what will happen to the energy industry
if people anywhere in the world can simply download the software
for highly efficient solar cells and then print those solar cells
off from their RepRap for nothing more than the cost of plastic and
silicon? At a minimum, it would have a hugely liberating effect on
the vast majority of the world’s population which currently doesn’t
have access to clean, inexpensive energy. (It would also have
sweeping geo-political ramifications.)
The implications of this technology, though, aren’t limited to
the energy and manufacturing industries. If a variety of objects
can be printed at home, a large portion of today’s distribution
network—everything from stores and middle-men to FedEx – will be
impacted.
And, at a different level, the device might also usher in a new
era for artists, designers and builders as they learn to use the
device to build things that were previously unimagineable.
Interested in other future-related posts? Check out these
recent posts by Jack Uldrich:
The Future is Cheap
A Race For Our Future
Insuring Our Future
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