What is a Fab Lab?
Short for “fabrication laboratory”, a fab lab is an automated manufacturing appliance that produces solid objects using raw materials (shredded plastic, silicon, wood chips, etc.) and computer instructions. Best thought of as a 3D printer, a fab lab could one day take the power of fabrication out of the manufacturing industry and put it into the hands of businesses and eventually consumers. Since the cost of raw materials would be negligible, a fab lab could drop the cost of manufacturing to the cost of power and the design only. In late 2004, the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms created a fab lab consisting of three Linux PCs, a laser cutter, a combination 3-D scanner and drill, a numerically controlled X-Acto knife, and a handful of RISC chips. It has successfully fabricated not only simple plastic products such as eyeglass frames and action figures, but also electronics such as small radios and computers. Funded by Degussa AG, a large German manufacturing and construction company, Behr
From the MIT website: “Fab Lab is an abbreviation for Fabrication Laboratory. It is a group of off-the-shelf, industrial-grade fabrication and electronics tools, wrapped in open source software and programs written by researchers at the Center for Bits and Atoms. Currently the labs include a laser cutter that makes 2D and 3D structures, a sign cutter that plots in copper to make antennas and flex circuits, a high-resolution milling machine that makes circuit boards and precision parts, and a suite of electronic components and programming tools for low-cost, high-speed microcontrollers.” There are many Fab Labs around the world. In Amsterdam alone there are 3. I worked with the Fab Lab at Mediamatic to develop a procedure for making printed circuit boards, and led a workshop for 15 people, who had never used a Fab Lab before, to successfully build a Micro TV transmitter in just one day. For more information on Fab Labs in Holland see www.fablab.nl (in Dutch).
How are they funded? Who can use the Fab Lab? When are they open? What can you make in a lab? Do the users have to pay for the supplies? How can we start a lab in our community? What organizations support the fab lab and its network of labs? Where else in the world are these Fab Labs? They made a lasercut emblem for their project of perspex, which we know as plexiglass. Fortunately I had a copy of the magazine that used my photos of the Boston Fab Lab to illustrate an article for waag.org, a design organization from the Netherlands. They said they would get in touch with that organization, which also is interested in getting a Fab Lab in the Netherlands. They could even read both translations of the article. It was in the shape of a ribbon, and had the names of both communities on it. As with the first group, we went with their design idea and helped them to make it for themselves. Liz is hoping that I will write more about Capetown, but that all seems so distant now. Three days and ni
It is a fully-fitted digital fabrication workshop where anyone can go to learn skills, make products that they want for themselves, develop small business ideas, be part of a linked global community and strengthen local links by working together on products to help their own communities. There are already Fab Labs across the World, from inner cities to the villages of Africa, connected by a global network which enables the sharing of ideas, designs and knowledge.
