In the television science-fiction series Star Trek, one of the more mundane technologies used is a replicator. The name of a desired object is merely spoken into a device, somewhat resembling a vending machine, and within a few seconds, the object materializes before the crew members eyes.
The current advances in digital fabrication arent quite on par with this replication process; however, on a manufacturing spectrum from a traditional 20th century industrial plant on one end to a 22nd century voice-activated kiosk on the other, todays personal digital fabricators certainly have more of a futuristic feel to them.
The simplest description of digital fabrication is "a technology that translates a digital design into a physical object" ? very often a complex physical object.1 Depending on the specifics, materials in these objects can include everything from cardstock and clay to plastic resin and various metals. Conceptually, a digital fabrication system is quite simple. A virtual design of an object is created using software, then a digital file of the object is sent to hardware where the digital design is transformed into the physical object.
The fundamental principles and basic technologies needed for digital fabrication have been around for well over 20 years. For most of that period, they were used to create prototype objects quickly and cheaply. This gave manufacturers and university researchers a way to test their designs and identify problems much earlier in the process.
More recently, the technology has evolved to the point that digital fabrication devices can cost-effectively manufacture end-products for a growing number of applications.2 So far, it is practical only for small-scale manufacturing of high-value items. However, the range of objects that can be manufactured with digital fabrication is virtually limitless.
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Consider just a few of the digital fabrication applications that have become commercially feasible in the past couple of years.
? In 2009, Stratasys, a printer manufacturer, teamed up with Kor Ecologic, a Canadian automotive company, and announced plans for the URBEE, the first automobile featuring a body fabricated using 3-D printer technology. ? In 2010, the laser-sintering company EOS demonstrated the ability to manufacture a violin in just a few hours. Selective laser sintering is a manufacturing process in which a laser is used to fuse tiny powder-like particles of plastic, glass, ceramic, or metal in layers to create a 3-D shape to match the design in a CAD file or a digital scan. ? SparkFun Electronics Inc., founded in 2003 in Boulder, Colorado, makes electronic component modules and devices using digital fabrication. Its revenues reached $18 million in 2010.
According to MITs Eric Von Hippel, user access to digital fabrication technology is translating into greater levels of product and process innovation.3 For example, he argues that its a primary factor in turning "users" into "developers of about 80 percent of the most important scientific instrument innovations" in recent years, as well as "developers of most of the major innovations in semiconductor processing."
To appreciate how digital fabrication actually works and how its evolving, its important to understand that were actually dealing with two distinct but complementary processes: subtractive fabrication and additive fabrication. Each type of process operates just as its name implies and each requires a set of tools to carry out that process.
A programmable subtractive tool carves objects out of raw material. There are different types of subtractive tools. Laser cutters cut flat sheets of wood, acrylic, metal, cardboard, and other light materials. Computer numerical control (CNC) routers and milling machines produce three-dimensional shapes using drills. Plasma and water jets cutters are used to shape material.
Additive tools are essentially computer-controlled 3-D printers that build up layers of material in three dimensions. Rather than print ink on a two-dimensional piece of paper, they print plastic resin or metal in three dimensions. The most common version of this process is called "fused deposition modeling" and it works with many types of materials, including thermoplastics, ceramics, resins, glass, and powdered metals. At the end of the process, the 3-D printers typically use lasers or electron beams to hone the final shape of the object.
One reason digital fabrication has begun to take root is because the cost of the tools has been dropping. If there is a Moores Law for digital fabrication, additive technologies have been following it. Their capabilities have increased, while their cost has decreased exponentially. Between 2001 and 2011, prices for the cheapest 3-D printers have plunged from $45,000 to less than $4,000 for "an open source personal version," and to less than $1,500 for "a desktop do-it-yourself kit."
Prices for subtractive tools have also dropped. Manufacturers have responded to the low-volume needs and low budgets of small businesses, schools, and individuals by introducing more economical models.
Adding to the affordability, custom CAD software and extensive training are no longer needed to operate the newer digital fabrication devices. Adobe Illustrator or even iPad applications can be used to make objects from designs created by anyone.
Compared to traditional manufacturing, todays digital fabrication does have its limits, particularly in speed and volume. Production runs of 1,000 or less are good candidates for digital fabrication, and although some 3-D printers can produce dozens of pieces an hour, they are not nearly as fast as traditional injection molding.
Because of these limitations, digital fabrication will not replace traditional manufacturing anytime soon, but it will alter it. Thats because what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in other key benefits.
For starters, this technology is perfectly suited for making a small number of parts, or a single unit, where the tooling cost for traditional manufacturing would render such a small run prohibitive.
In 2010, technology market research firm Wohlers Associates reported that digital fabrications most common applications are production runs of one unit, such as functional models, prototype components and patterns, and visual aids.
A manufacturer, for example, can create a single unit for testing its fit in an assembly before running a full production of the part. In school settings, students can see their virtual designs come to life in 3-D.
This ability to create single unit production runs economically offers the advantage of extremely targeted customization. For e-tailers and retailers, benefits might include gaining entry to a market they couldnt previously tap or gaining a competitive advantage through personalized products and services. In the areas of basic research and R&D, researchers can also benefit because they can produce large numbers of prototypes or test samples, each having tiny specified differences.
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Because digital fabrication can easily be set up anywhere, it also offers the advantage of local fabrication. In rural or remote areas, this can greatly reduce the expense of shipping finished products into a region. In times of emergencies and disasters, local availability could be critical.
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For established manufacturers, this technology has the potential to transform business models because it dramatically reduces the impact of economies of scale. This potentially shifts the focus to brand building, customer cost-savings programs, consumer outreach, full customization, and global competitiveness through local focus.
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Digital fabrication also provides the individual hobbyist or craftsman with capabilities that have traditionally required a full machine shop. This dramatically reduces the initial investment, operating overhead, set-up time, craft skills, and technical expertise traditionally required to become a manufacturer and be competitive. This lowers barriers to entry and makes it possible for more innovators to serve narrower niches profitably.
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Its these game-changing benefits that are positioning digital fabrication as a "disruptive innovation" in the decade ahead. As such, its poised to transform manufacturing in much the same way that the Internet transformed the delivery of information-based goods and services, or the way personal computers transformed the world of mainframe-based computing.
The most significant change will be a shift from scale-driven mass production factories to a world of "dispersed customer-driven manufacturing." In some places and industries, it seems that a customer-centric "maker culture" has already sprung up to take advantage of this model. This culture is now represented by a small, yet growing, number of tiny companies that are producing, designing, and marketing products ? and many of these companies started with little or no external funding.
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This so-called "maker culture" can be envisioned as a community of individuals who sell, use, and adapt the tools of digital fabrication. Combining hundreds of interlinked businesses, user groups, online shopping sites, and social media environments, this community is already becoming a self-organizing global supply chain.
One business model thats beginning to catch on is the "online fabrication service." Heres how it works. Customers design items using compatible CAD software and then upload the digital design to an online fabrication service. The service then uses affordable 3-D printing and laser cutting to produce the item in small volumes. Within a few days, the customer receives the physical objects via FedEx or UPS. The customer then sells the items to consumers or uses them in its own operations.
Other companies make the "supply chain management tools" that enable small fabricators to exchange plans and instructions, coordinate production, and sell their designs and fabricated objects to their customers.
The small, online fabricators work from encoded software plans that either they or their customers create, or they access them from openly available repositories on the Web. Its the availability of plans through these open repositories that is greatly fueling the growth of this new manufacturing model. From a repository, a person is free to download someone elses designs and the related fabricator programming code for a particular product.
To keep the repositories robust and growing, people are expected to publish their plans and specifications. This is done under an open source license, so other small fabricators can copy, adapt, and learn from the designs.
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Growing in size, this so-called "maker culture" is leveraging the declining costs of digital fabrication and the connectivity of social media to create a diversified manufacturing ecosystem. Its a system where 10,000 small factories making 100 units each can better respond to the needs and wants of customers than one factory making 1 million units.
In addition, highly customized components, reduced inventory through on-demand production, and rapid setup changes at a lower cost are aligning to dramatically transform the supply chain design as well as financing, marketing, and management.
In light of this trend, please consider the following four forecasts:
First, expect digital fabrication to help revitalize several hard-hit U.S. cities in the coming decade.
Many of the cities that have suffered most from the downturn in the economy still possess three key ingredients that will attract digital fabricators: a large population in need of employment, knowledge of a wide range of manufacturing techniques, and a surplus of affordable real estate. Detroit is a prime example. Whether this potential is realized depends on creating an environment in which designers, raw materials producers, fabrication firms, and skilled labor are able to create a win-win ecosystem.
Second, savvy traditional manufacturers will selectively integrate digital fabrication into their manufacturing models.
There are at least three ways in which this integration will occur:
1. Initially, as small digital fabrication manufacturers begin to take root, the quickest and easiest way for large traditional manufacturers to leverage this new technology will be to outsource work to these local micro-factories. This outsourcing will help large manufacturers develop a more responsive production model. It will also allow large manufacturers to wait for the technologies to mature before investing ? in essence enabling the small fabricators to be their R&D departments. Those who merely see the small digital fabricators as competition and fail to embrace digital fabrication are destined to fail. 2. Some traditional manufacturers will develop hybrid production lines that combine mass production and individualized digital fabrication. This duality will enable them to leverage whichever capability is most advantageous for a particular product or part, focusing on either scale or customization. 3. The successful traditional manufacturers, for which there will always be a need, will act like small fabricators by staying connected to the "maker culture." It is through this network that companies will learn about better techniques and better materials. They will tap into a world where thousands of independent innovators are constantly experimenting and sharing their results. Of course, it will need to be a two-way street where the companies share their experiences as well. This will pay off in the long run by helping foster and grow a digital fabrication knowledge base.
Third, as digitally fabricated items integrate complex electronic and electromechanical sub-systems, the penetration of this technology will grow exponentially.
Printable organic integrated circuits are becoming faster and more reliable. Similarly, printable batteries, touch-pads, RFID systems, piezoelectric actuators, MEMS devices, and displays are all no more than a few years away. Then, just as the PC opened up software creation to anyone with the programming expertise, well see hardware creation open up to anyone with engineering expertise.
Fourth, digital fabrication will transform the business model for manufacturers in the healthcare industry.
For an industry that requires a high degree of customization because everyones body is different, digital fabrication is tailor-made. Natural applications include 3-D-printed hearing aids and 3-D-printed dental implants. Already, fabricators are being used to turn CT and MRI scans into 3-D models for improved insight. In the future, artificial bones, blood vessels, and even kidneys will be created via digital fabrication, built layer by layer from living tissue.
References List : 1. For more information about the fundamentals of digital fabrication visit the University of Virginia’s Curry Center for Technology and Teacher Education website at: http://www.digitalfabrication.org 2. Strategy + Business, Autumn 2011, “A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Fabrication,” by Tom Igoe and Catarina Mota. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by Booz & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. http://strategy-business.com 3. Ibid.
