Open Source Micro-Factory

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Description

Proposed by Marcin Jakubowski:

"Imagine if you could build cars, industrial robots, engines, and other things in your own back yard. The only problem is, these require billions of dollars of infrastructure in the current industrial system. Not for long – if we succeed with the Open Source Micro-Factory.

We will be starting a viral Kickstarter campaign in the next week or two to make this concept a reality at a prototype development cost of about $100k. The concept is simple: open-source ~12 of the most important, high-performance machines of industrial production and automation, provide plans for all these machines, and provide plans for certain key products that can be built with these machines. This could be a serious contribution to realizing the concept of Industry 2.0 – a scenario of distributive, local production via flexible fabrication, fueled by a global repository of open source design. While such production can occur in your own back yard, our real intent is enabling the solution of creating wealth in local communities. The potential is profound – and is described best by Jane Jacobs, who claims that the highest level of evolution (like Maslow’s Pyramid) for cities – is for those cities to return to local production (import substitution).

In short, the Open Source Micro-Factory is a robust, closed-loop manufacturing system for many kinds of mechanical and electronic devices. It includes the ability to provide its own fuel, electricity, and mechanical power.

The designs are scalable in output. Our proposal includes open source blue-prints and CAM files for self-replication, starting from scrap metal as a feedstock. The above represents a rough sketch, with break-through economics included – such as building a $50k-value tractor at about $3k in parts, or 50 hp hydraulic motors at about $50 in parts via open source induction furnace, casting, and precision machining. So we’re beginning our foray into the next phase of fabrication – making our own components, as opposed to outsourcing from China." (http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2011/03/open-source-micro-factory/)