Weapons of Mass Creation: Portable 3-D Printers Have Arrived
William Shakespeare is credited with coining the term ‘luggage’ in Henry IV in 1597. It took over 400 years before someone figured out it would be easier if the baggage had wheels. (The first wheeled carry-on was sold in 1970.) But it has only taken four years for a designer to create a carrying case for a 3-D printer.
That designer is Emmanuel Gilloz, a 24-year-old Frenchman who built the FoldaRap. Gilloz’s portable machine is a variant of the RepRap model that inspired the MakerBot and a variety of other popular 3-D printers. While other machines are optimized for resolution or build-size, Gilloz focused on convenience and portability. Wired caught up with him to hear more about the project.
Wired Design: Why was portability so important to you?
Emmanuel Gilloz: Constraints are great, I’m fond of origami, and I always try to make things that can be folded.
Most importantly I don’t have a car, and I moved a lot in the past two years. Bringing my machine to events or meetups meant I had to carry a big, heavy thing that wasn’t made for that kind of usage. Even the RepRap Huxley becomes heavy when you hold it for a long time, so as a designer and frustrated user I designed one tailored to my need.
Wired Design: What was the biggest design challenge you’ve had to overcome?
Gilloz: The biggest challenges were designing the hinge mechanism and finding the suppliers of all the non-printed parts. That kind of information is quite time-consuming to obtain, almost like chasing a treasure. It’s an even greater reason to share it in the wiki, because those who try to self-source a RepRap are not all interested in that type of hunt.
Wired Design: What other improvements would you like to see in RepRap 3-D printers?
Gilloz: Technically I’m quite happy with the RepRaps as they are. Their big advantage is the continuous improvement and modularity that makes each year’s machines more reliable, faster, simpler to build, and more capable.
From the RepRap family tree I see three trends: performance, self-replication, and simplicity. Simplicity is my favorite, I thrive for it. The choice to use some components rather than others can greatly simplify things.
In 10 years we will have even more awesome bots, if we remember to share our ideas. I’m trying to address that with the FoldaRap by showing the entire design process and mentioning all the suppliers.
Wired Design: Are there any other fabrication tools that excite you?
Gilloz: Paste extruders, powder sinterers, lasers (I want to make a foldable one), open source ecology … everything that contributes to make us more independent. In the long term it’s a matter of resilience and survival, being able to make stuff and empowering everyone else to.
I grew up with MacGyver and reading the US Army Survival Guide and did I mention making stuff is the coolest way to learn things and have fun?
Wired Design: How important do you think aesthetics are in 3-D printing?
Gilloz: We often heard people saying the bare threaded rods (on RepRap 3-D printers) look too “garage-made” for them, but they also have their charm. We will see how the 3D Systems Cube does with the opposite approach.
Personally I think that with the right amount of work in collecting the information of how to source, build, and run a 3-D printer it can be made as attractive as a mass-produced solution, but we do need more designers in DIY. It will be a good part of my future efforts.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. All photos courtesy of Emmanuel Gilloz.
from: http://www.wired.com/design/2012/08/portable-3-d-printer/