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MakerBot Industries Brings Manufacturing Back To Brooklyn 87
pacopico writes "A few decades ago, Brooklyn was filled with manufacturing companies. Today? Er, not so much. It's mostly restaurants and condos. That is, except for MakerBot Industries, which is assembling 3D printers for consumers by hand at a real, live factory. Businessweek profiled the MakerBot founder Bre Pettis and his goal of revitalizing manufacturing in New York, describing him as a weird 'throwback who lives in the future.'"
Self replicating (Score:1)
Or are they using other stuff?
Re:Self replicating (Score:4, Informative)
Escher (Score:2)
can someone print a 3d sketch of two printers printing each other into existence?
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3D printers tend to do badly at mass production, altough I could see a rig with a grid of 5x5 heads turning out 25 copies of a part at a time. (I know, everything would be heavier and would have to move slower, but a man can dream)
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... but it will bring more manufacturing back to the US and Europe.
I think the main contributing factor there is shipping. It will be cheaper to make something locally than to have it shipped from China.
Where machining will hold on longest will be in the making of precision metal parts. There are some 3D printing techniques that can do metal, such as laser sintering, or print-then-sinter with organic binders and metal powder, but they're still slow, expensive, and of limited precision. There has also been progress with micro laser ablation machining, which is great fo
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You'd be surprised. In the UK it generally costs more to get a container from the docks to a distribution centre on a truck than it does to ship the container from China to the UK, and you've still got to source raw materials for local manufacture.
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You'd be surprised. In the UK it generally costs more to get a container from the docks to a distribution centre on a truck than it does to ship the container from China to the UK, and you've still got to source raw materials for local manufacture.
it's the time factor which matters for the factories that need those machined parts to produce some other product, they can't wait for the container to make the trip.
but it's really ridiculous when postage from china to finland for a pack of batteries costs less than sending a postcard 30 miles inside finland - really messed up.
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"3D printing techniques that can do metal, such as laser sintering"
Can we please stop lending credence to "3d printing" by associating it with legitimate, decades-old manufacturing processes? If it's called laser sintering, CALL IT LASER SINTERING. IT'S NOT 3D PRINTING.
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Laser 3D sintering printing. Gotcha.
Lighten up Francis (Score:1)
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Until these things can take raw material, grind it up, and make a new item I highly doubt mass manufacturing in labor cheap places like China will ever go away.
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They are already using wax based 3D printers for partial denture [wikipedia.org] metal frameworks as cutting edge production and laser sintered metal powder on the bleeding edge. Those frameworks have to be accurate to a few 10,000ths of an inch. Crowns are being milled [youtube.com] from semi-sintered zirconia to an accuracy of 40 microns and that's after the zirconia shrinks 25% during final sintering.
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Those frameworks have to be accurate to a few 10,000ths of an inch
Citation needed. I'm a CNC programmer and machinist, and I deal with 10,000ths of an inch daily. There is no way that a wax casting can hold anything near that close. Also as near as I can figure there would be no need for a dental appliance to hold that kind of tolerance.
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Yes, AM systems (like 3D printers) may be used in mass manufacturing, but Additive Manufacturing currently isn't about mass production; it's about custom, fast turnaround, limited production. I too would like to see it used more for mass production since it's more efficient and can make objects that otherwise would be either time consuming (and therefore expensive) or impossible for conventional techniques to make.
More efficient than what? You realize the processes most directly comparable in capabilities are probably investment casting, followed by die casting and plastic injection molding -- all of which are pretty damn efficient, but moderately high capital, and thus not used in hobbyist shops. So everything a hobbyist does gets whittled out with an endmill, which yes, is pretty inefficient, and the hobbyist thinks the world of manufacturing consists of machining things from billet. I'm a machinist by trade, and I
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Oh come on lost investment cast has been done for over 4,000 years, nothing is used that a junk-yard wars hardware hacker can't cobble together for next to nothing; you can actually buy everything to cast your own jewelry for a little over a $1,000.00 new, and a lot less if your ebay-fu is up to par.
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I need an agile methodology. Are 3D printers agile?
MongoDB is webscale. I want to build a cloud to uplink my MongoDB on. Can I do this using an agile methodology with a 3d printer?
Oh great thats just what we need (Score:3)
robots with brooklyn accents. ;-)
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manufacturing in brooklyn (Score:5, Informative)
"condos and restaurants...Except for MakerBot Industries"
Nope...you know, aside from three operating breweries, and hundreds of machine shops that dot my neighborhood. Or the medical instruments manufacturers, or the concrete and cement factories, or the furniture companies...
Just because it's not electronics, doesn't mean there's no manufacturing. A simple google search shows at least hundreds of companies.
PS - you must not go outside the gentrified parts of Brooklyn because the majority of the borough is still non-condo and sparsely restauranted.
Re:manufacturing in brooklyn (Score:5, Interesting)
Rule 34 by Stross [wikipedia.org] (yes, it's in reference to that Rule 34 [xkcd.com]) has some interesting side content about the speculative future of a maker community. Printers and feedstock are relatively common, but most printers have embedded DRM related to IP purchase of the models.
With the current legal/IP trend it's a reasonable speculation as many companies would (with some justification) fear a consumer who could print physical devices as easily as they illegally download an MP3. So, from that perspective, clearly anyone with a DRM free printer has got to be some sort of criminal (yeah, yeah, there's that whole infringer/criminal thing, whatever).
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but most printers have embedded DRM related to IP purchase of the models.
Not if you build your own 3D printer. You can download the complete software toolchain, all open source, free and actively supported by enthusiasts. Fabbers are actually easier to design and build than an equivalent-size CNC milling machine since the forces involved are much smaller. Not really much different from an ink-jet printer, actually.
Filament feedstock is still ridiculously expensive but only because it is not manufactured in commercial quantities. Current prices for 3mm filament in 1kg spools are
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Not oversimplified. Just plain wrong.
35 U.S.C. 271. Infringement of patent
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without
authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within
the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention
during the term of the patent therefor, infringes th
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I'm as progressive as anyone but at what point do we accept the cyclical nature of such things?
We accept the broad centralization/decentralization of other resources as a natural contraction/expansion cycle, we even at some point accept this on a macro economic level. I think your comment misses this point in reflection of the article. It's ok to loathe these cycles as they are not always convenient, but there have always been oligarchies and their always will be, it's a natural cycle of capitalism.
Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. (Score:1)
Manufacturing comes across as this panacea for high paying jobs and economic boost of a local economy but the trouble is that modern manufacturing is mostly automated. Sure the individual jobs may be higher paying than a Walmart - like a CNC machinist but those are few. Walk into a modern factory and you hardly see anyone - there would be a couple of operators and some maintenance guys.
Yes, it boosts the local tax base - assuming there isn't too many tax breaks that the local politicos gave to lure them t
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Manufacturing creates value. Without it there is nothing to trade or service. This makes it the basis of a solid local economy.
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(Also, of course, there really isn't much good news about 'jobs' in any sector, especially if you are counting compensation-in-inflation-adjusted-dollars, job stability, or 'what you can do with a high school diploma' as variables, so there aren't many attractive options to keep nostalgi
Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. (Score:4, Insightful)
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The only way that would possibly end well is if we somehow move past a society in which money, and therefore a job, is required for procuring food, shelter, clothing, medicine, etc. If we go too far on the automation side, and make huge chunks of the workforce obsolete, but still require them to have money so they can get food, then we've got a huge problem.
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You can give people a decent basic standard of living while still allowing the option to amass "more stuff" if they excel. Much of Western Europe is run along those lines.
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Behold, the power of taxes! :D
I know what you mean though, and here's my thinking on it. Its all about dogs. People and dogs go way back, and along the way clearly some people observed how dogs behaved and decided to apply the same concept to their fellow humans. Politicians, leaders, corporate tycoons, many of these act as though they were the leaders of dog packs rather than intelligent homo sapiens who reached their current elevated status by cooperation and mutual understanding. This can be seen in the
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Unless you're making scissors.
More manufacturing in North America (Score:3)
I know at least one (large, multinational, sorta-conglomerate) company that makes more money manufacturing things in the U.S. that overseas. The things in question include great big cast-iron valves for refineries, with little bitty electronic sensors and steppers. The insides and valve seats are automatically ground to tight specs, the electronics are added on an automated line, and lift truck carry them around. The humans are qa inspectors, set-up guys and the lowest-skilled job is the lift-truck drive
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"condos and restaurants...Except for MakerBot Industries"
Nope...you know, aside from three operating breweries, and hundreds of machine shops that dot my neighborhood. Or the medical instruments manufacturers, or the concrete and cement factories, or the furniture companies...
Well exactly. Brooklyn has a population of 2.5 million. The idea of it having no industry except restaurants is patently ridiculous. The idea of it being homogeneous in character is ridiculous. Brooklyn is much bigger than Manahattan, and even people with very limited knowledge of New York have an idea of the different characters of different parts of Manhattan (from film, literature etc.)
Breaking News (Score:2)
American industry isn't really as comatose as this article seems to suggest; the unfortunate reality is that all of the "sexy" manufacturing gigs (e.g., phones, novel tech in general) does end up ultimately getting outsourced. I think the real story here is having some manufacturing in the U.S. that produces goods that actually might have a demand on the other side of the pond, which is definitely something more exciting to brag about.
Bring back Sexy Tech!
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There was an interesting documentary on BBC the other night.
It was about a cushion manufacturer who was finding making things in China too expensive and was trying to bring back manufacturing to the UK.
I would guess that other smaller scale business who have moved their manuafcturing overseas (esp to China) might well be finding the same problem. Also, the Chinese workers are typically employed on a 1year contract. Every Feb they all go walkabout and get new jobs.
One chinese worker in the documentary wanted
Competition (Score:2)
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Cubify makes a damn good profit on their "cartridges", which seem to cost atleast twice at much as normal PLA filament used in 3D printers.
Also, the 1.8k price doesn't come from raw materials. Less then half of that is material/production costs. The rest is for everything else, "overhead" like paying people for support, keeping stock, sending out replacement parts for DOA bits. "Mass producing" electronics would cut only $50-100 of the price.
Replacing all the quality parts with cheap plastic bits, and have
Ultimaker (Score:2)
I could have predicted the resurgence! (Score:2)
"Already 13 lawsuits have been filed to block expansion of the factory until environmental studies are published, 7 politicians are trying to get elected slamming the company because '3D printers cost jobs from normal manufacturing', and the city has upped the abandoned building's taxes from $200 a year to $27,000,000 a year."
"Corporate officials could not be contacted in time for this story since they are currently in China."
Entirely possible with our current Head of State (Score:2)
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Doesn't matter. Bre Pettis is a fucking legend. I miss his MAKE videos.
brooklyn is one huge superfund site (Score:3)
thanks to manufacturing from 100 years ago. Whole Foods and jetBlue are just two of the businesses that have had delays in building because almost every site is contaminated with toxic waste
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P.S. take your manufacturing to flyover country. i'll take a clean environment
They are wrong (Score:2)
Businessweek is what is wrong with the world today....they brand him a throw back living in the future, yet this is how we got into this mess in the first place, by allowing Businessweek minded people to dictate it would be better to get stuff made outside of the US, and then we pay through the nose because not only do we have less jobs, and are dependent on other countries for our products, but now just like the oil, we do not control the price, if they want to sell us the dvd player at 1000$ a pop, who ca
Next Step: Reproduction (Score:1)
What we really need is printers that can make printers that can make other thing, including more printers. Then we can go exponential and take over the world... hehehe...
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Skynet, oh you! :P
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That's called a RepRap [reprap.org].
"RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials."
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It can print circuit boards, ships and motors?
Very handly device. (Score:2)
I'm reading Slashdot while waiting for my Replicator to finish printing parts for a client in China.
I'm curious about the new Cubify from 3D Systems. Could be interesting
Cubify (Score:2)
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Thanks. The information provided is more hype than substance. I gave up looking for the catch. I'd assumed it was going to be the cartridges holding the materials ... just like ink jet printers.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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Nope, though abused by those companies, "throwback" is a word that's been around a very long time. Taking a gander at Google's Ngram [google.com] viewer shows the term in use back to the early 1800's. Other sources indicate it's origin as being 1855 [reference.com] or 1888 [merriam-webster.com].
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"Bre Pettis: 3D Printing's First Celebrity " (Score:2)
I thought Bathsheba Grossman was "3D Printing's First Celebrity".
Hype and Realitiy (Score:1)
Nearly purchased one last week. (Score:2)
I nearly purchased one last week, then I saw the 12 week lead time. Nope sorry not happening, fix the supply chain, bad management and or labor shortage problem and I may think about it.