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Napster
manufacturing:
The
future dimension of digital downloads
by
Jay Soloman
We may not be up to
teleporting disassembled sequences of human molecules across
your living room quite yet. But Taipan guarantees
that you will soon be able to download more than music and
movie files from the web. The brouhaha over Napster is only
the tip of the iceberg, and while the courts have thrown
a monkey wrench into its future, nothing will ever be the
same again.
Thanks to a process known as “fabbing,” you will
literally be able to download everything from screws to
Porsches into what used to be the comfort of your own home…
all via a device that translates 3-D data files into physical
products.
Remember the good old times, when the ultimate means of
purchase was to find that one friend who could “get
it for you wholesale?” Tomorrow’s friend can either
get it for you free, or arrange a transaction not only completely
without the traditional middlemen, but also without anything
being produced or assembled outside your own home!
Long
time no see
If
you’ve stuck with Taipan over the last decade,
you remember how we have followed the fortunes of two companies
at the cutting edge of fabbing. And what a bizarre contrast
they present: Ennex, the fabbing visionary and cheerleader.
And 3Dsystems, the breadwinner.
Talking to Marshall Burns, founder of Ennex, you will find
his vision is so infectious that you almost forget your
own lack of technical expertise. You just want to sign up
and join in. But without a visit to the 3D website, you
might be concerned that the ultimate fabbing payoff won’t
materialize in this lifetime…
3-D
imaging
On
May 29, 3Dsystems announced the sale of its 2000th solid
imaging system. In fiscal 2000, it shipped 387 systems globally,
with revenues of US$109.7 million. Q1 2001 revenues of US$27.9
million have already come in at 21.3% more than a year before.
The list of 3D’s customers is proof positive that the
company has become totally mainstream since we first introduced
you to its potential back in 1993. Clients include GM, Ford,
Porsche, Allied Signal, Martin Marietta, Northrup Grumman,
Texas Instruments, Bose, Pitney Bowes, and Black & Decker,
to name just a few. And these users apply fabbing across
the manufacturing spectrum… automotive, aerospace,
electronics, consumer, entertainment, and medical.
If this is an industry in its infancy, what will adolescence
look like?
Nuts
and bolts
A
fabber (short for “digital fabricator”) is a “factory
in a box” that makes things automatically from digital
data. Fabbers generate three-dimensional, solid objects
you can hold in your hands, submit to testing, or assemble
into working mechanisms. They are used by manufacturers
around the planet for low-volume production, prototyping
and mold mastering. They are also used by scientists and
surgeons for solid imaging, and by a few modern artists
for innovative computerized sculpture.
Fabbers are categorized by the manner in which they operate
on their raw material. “Subtractive fabrication”
carves material away from a solid block by milling, turning
or electrodischarge machining (EDM).
Subtractive fabbers have been automated since the late 1940s,
and are often called computer numerically controlled (CNC)
machines.
“Additive
fabrication” successively adds material to build up
the desired object. Methods to accomplish this include selective
curing and sintering as well as aimed deposition. The first
of these was not introduced until 1987.
“Formative
fabrication” neither adds nor removes material, but
applies opposing pressures to the material to modify its
shape. Techniques in this—the “tomorrow”
method of fabbing—will include automated bending and
reconfigurable molding. Hybrid machines are available that
combine two or more of the above categories; in fact, no
purely “formative fabbers” are available today.
The
next step
Fabbers
are a US$10 billion dollar industry worldwide in terms of
annual sales. Almost all of this is in the traditional subtractive
category, with additive fabbers (like 3D) accounting for
only about US$200 million in 1998. Sales of subtractive
fabbers were essentially flat in the 1990s. Most fabbers
on the market today are industrial equipment costing between
US$45,000 and US$800,000.
Any new excitement over fabbing will come from small, fast,
inexpensive, and easy-to-use machines that will revolutionize
the market.
Already, a community of fabbers called the Rapid Prototype
Mailing List congregates on the Internet. Members of RP-ML
have occasionally traded or exchanged 3-D design files for
use in fabbers.
These “Napster” fabbers will have the capability
of flexible production in homes and small studios; there,
they can link directly to the designer through digital files
or live hookup. This cuts out the “traditional manufacturers.”
Like the record companies, these manufacturers make their
money by controlling distribution of the physical manifestations
of creative designs. Just as Napster brings the musician
out from behind the record label, fabbers on the Internet
bring product designers out from behind the manufacturer,
and leave them directly facing the users of their designs.
This creates the quandary of who-is-going-to-be-paid-for-what
in the future. Taipan believes radical new business
arrangements will be the result.
ACTION
ALERT
• Marshall
Burns c/o Ennex 11465 Washing-ton Place • Los Angeles,
CA 90066 • Phone: 310-397-1144 • e-mail: marshall
@ennex.com
• Jeff
Krinks, PR Mgr. c/o 3D Systems 26081 Avenue Hall •
Valencia, CA 91355 • 661-295-5600, x2910 • krinksj@3dsystems.com
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