RepRap
URL = http://reprap.org/
Description
From the Wikipedia [1]:
"The RepRap Project is an initiative aimed at creating a self-replicating machine which can be used for rapid prototyping and manufacturing. A rapid prototyper is a 3D printer that is able to fabricate three dimensional artifacts from a computer-based model. Project authors describe 'self-replication', understood as the ability to reproduce the components necessary to build another version of itself, as one of the goals for the project.
Due to the potential self-replicating ability of the machine, authors envision the possibility to cheaply distribute RepRap units to people and communities, enabling them to create (or download from the internet) complex products and artifacts without the need for expensive industrial infrastructure. They further speculate that the RepRap will eventually demonstrate evolution in this process as well as being able to increase in number exponentially. This, in theory, would give RepRap the potential to become a powerful disruptive technology, similar to that of other anticipated low-cost personal fabrication technologies.
The stated goal of the RepRap project is not to produce a pure self-replicating device for its own sake but rather to put in the hands of individuals anywhere on the planet, for a minimal outlay of capital, a Desktop Manufacturing system that would enable the individual to manufacture many of the artifacts used in everyday life. The self-replicating nature of RepRap could also facilitate its viral dissemination and may well facilitate a major paradigm shift in the design in manufacture of consumer products from one of factory production of patented products to one of personal production of unpatented products with open specifications." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap_Project)
Background
Dr Adrian Bowyer, a Senior Lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, initiated RepRap, and leads the project team.The project itself uses rapid prototyping (specifically fused deposition modeling), and will make the results available under the GNU General Public License, a free software license, at no cost, allowing other investigators to work on the same idea and improve it.
Currently, low-end commercial 3D prototypers cost about US$30K (from Z Corporation). Prototypes made by these low-end commercial machines costing around US$2 per cubic centimetre to fabricate. The Reprap Project is on track to produce a 3D prototyping machine and free/open source accompanying software that costs about US$400 to build and which can fabricate objects at a cost of about US$0.02 per cubic centimeter.
Status Report
On 13 September 2006 the RepRap 0.2 prototype successfully printed the first part of itself which was subsequently used to replace an identical part originally created by a commercial 3D printer.
A short production run (~1 km) of 3 mm polycaprolactone filament suitable for use in the Mk II extruders used in several operational and near-operational reprap prototypes has been produced for the project. With 1km of polycaprolactone filament, the project has been able to produce larger artifacts and also test the candidate systems for days instead of for hours, as was the case with hand-produced filament.
Vik Olivier's Zaphod prototype has replicated a parts set for the Mk II extruder. Vik assembled the parts into a working Mk II and has successfully employed it as a second extruder on Zaphod. The use of polycaprolactone for the parts set instead of ABS required that several minor changes be made when assembling them into a working Mk II.