It's happening. Much like the computer went from a monolithic room filling device used only by the military and government, to one that can fit in the palm of your hand, allowing you to do something about your surroundings via a geolocation enabled app, manufacturing is fast becoming something you and I can do, literally. And it has the potential to likewise shift the balance of power and control of what and where things get made, and what products do and do not see the light of day.
How?
It used to be that if you wanted to manufacture something, whether it's an entire product or its components, you had to do so at a large scale. After all, for a third party manufacturer or yourself, it was quite expensive to set up the production line to make each part. Changing aspects frequently required time and retooling. Not something for a small scale production, unless you're talking a prohibitively expensive one of a kind.
Then along came 3D printers.
These devices use a laser to shape a piece of raw material, frequently plastic, into an object, layer by layer. At first largely the province of adventurous tech geeks, last year saw the emergence of Ponoko, a company that has succeeded in creating an ecosystem of people with ideas, tools, and desire to buy what's being created.
Basically, with Ponoko if you have an idea for a product, you can find someone to make it for you. One. Or many. You pay a per minute rate for use of the printer that makes it. If you have a printer, you get business funneled to you via Ponoko. If you are a designer, you have the ability to have your product made, at a reasonable cost, no matter the quantity purchased.
This was a definite step forward, and yet you still had the barrier of cost, someone else being in control of the manufacturing.Enter Makerbot Industries.
It has recently introduced what is the beginning of truly democratized manfuacturing: The Makerbot. It is a $750 open source 3D printer that can create small objects via ABS plastic. And it can make its own replacement parts! While we're not talking automotive manufacturing here, it is a solid beginning to what I predict will swiftly become an increasingly wide spread, widely useful practice.
What does this mean, in terms of sustainability?
Unless you live next door to the factory of what you purchase, and all components are made in one location, your purchase of a product likely logged a lot of miles getting to you. With something made via a Makerbot, you could either create your own design, or download a design from someone else, and make it right where you are. Then, rather than having to buy a new one if a part wears or breaks, you create the replacements yourself.
You've now skipped the shipping and reduced disposal waste. While this is happening on a small scale now, imagine the impact if repeated millions, billions of times.
The one sticking point at this stage is that objects made in Makerbots are made with plastic, which being petroleum based material, has the accompanying ecological footprint and in time, may prove expensive as petroleum becomes a scarcer resource. Can bioplastics be used? Can those be supplied at a reasonable cost? What about aluminum, or a temporary liquid, even some other as yet to be created upcyclable substance be used? Let's hope so. Ponoko currently works with everything from felt to bamboo.
But for now, the Makerbot marks a point in time, where the shift began.Readers: What's your take on the sustainability of micro scale manufacturing? How else can we cut out links of the supply chain? Right now the offerings are primarily machine parts and decorative objects. What would you design and offer?
