by Jared Sagoff
To build a treehouse, you'll need a hammer, some nails, and a tolerance for splinters. To print treehouses, however, you'll probably need a Fab Lab. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), in conjunction with the University of Chicago, recently helped to launch a Fab Lab at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, and others may soon arrive both onsite and at several locations in greater Chicagoland.
Conceived by Professor Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) in 2002, Fab Labs—short for fabrication laboratories—support the burgeoning field of "personal manufacturing" by providing nontechnical laity as well as engineers with access to the tools and knowledge necessary to create products that satisfy their individual needs.
Each Fab Lab uses open-source software programs developed at and provided by the CBA to run a group of off-the-shelf tools: laser cutters, miniature milling machines that print circuit boards, jigsaws with a precision of a millionth of a meter and a few others.
Instead of cranking an Allen wrench or turning a screwdriver, newly minted inventors need only write a bit of computer code and press a couple of buttons to create their devices. Other users can then take the code used to create these products to make perfect replicas, or they can tweak the instructions and create an original design. Although the Fab Labs currently in operation use common tools and software, the devices they have produced vary widely from lab to lab. In rural northern Norway, a shepherd started a Fab Lab to build wireless tags so he could keep track of his sheep as they grazed; eventually he converted his lab to supply wireless technology for his town. Likewise, at an old Hindu hermitage outside of Pune, India, students have built everything from temporary bamboo shelters to gears for photocopiers using Fab Lab technology.
"If you look at Fab Labs around the world, the products that they have made represent individual or community needs and not the needs of the originators of the Fab Labs," said Harold Myron, director of ANL's Division of Educational Programs.
Although no definite arrangements have been made, Myron hopes to bring a Fab Lab to the ANL Information Center within the next several months.
This chair, built by students at the Barcelona Fab Lab, was created from a single 4-by-8 foot piece of plywood manipulated using the Fab Lab technology. (Click image to enlarge)
