Fused deposition modeling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Several projects and companies are making efforts to develop
affordable 3D printers for home desktop use. Much of this work has been
driven by and targeted at DIY/enthusiast/early adopter communities, with additional ties to the academic and hacker communities.[6]
RepRap is one of the longest running projects in the desktop category. The RepRap project aims to produce a free and open source hardware (FOSH) 3D printer, whose full specifications are released under the GNU General Public License, and which is capable of replicating itself by printing many of its own (plastic) parts to create more machines.[7][8] RepRaps have already been shown to be able to print circuit boards[9] and metal parts.[10][11]
Fab@Home is the other opensource hardware project for DIY 3D printers.
Because of the FOSH aims of RepRap,
many related projects have used their design for inspiration, creating
an ecosystem of related or derivative 3D printers, most of which are
also open source designs. The availability of these open source designs
means that variants of 3D printers are easy to invent. The quality and
complexity of printer designs, however, as well as the quality of kit or
finished products, varies greatly from project to project. This rapid
development of open source 3D printers is gaining interest in many
spheres as it enables hyper-customization and the use of public domain designs to fabricate open source appropriate technology. This technology can also assist initiatives in sustainable development since technologies are easily and economically made from resources available to local communities.[12][13]
