{"id":388,"date":"2010-03-02T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/388-shapeways-interviews-desktop-3d-printing-pioneer-evan-malone.html"},"modified":"2014-07-03T16:54:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T16:54:33","slug":"shapeways-interviews-desktop-3d-printing-pioneer-evan-malone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/shapeways-interviews-desktop-3d-printing-pioneer-evan-malone","title":{"rendered":"Shapeways interviews Desktop 3D printing pioneer Evan Malone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Malone was one of the crucial people behind the Fab@Home project<\/b> which demonstrated to many that desktop 3D printing was not a pipe dream but a usable technology. He has now founded NextFab Studio<\/a> and the NextFab Organization<\/a>. NextFab Studio is a Philadelphia based organization that is a hackerspace that you can go to in order to make & invent things. The NextFab Organization hopes to spread learning and information about all the open source design and fabrication technologies available. I am a fanboy and tried not to swoon. <\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Will everyone really make everything?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> No. I believe there will always be economy of scale in certain
\nprocesses<\/b>, and simple practical constraints, like the size of objects,
\nor the amount of power required to work with certain materials that
\nwill prevent individuals from making everything.  Personal fabrication
\ntechnology is a new branch of manufacturing – I doubt it will replace
\nthe entire tree.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Won’t people be too lazy? Won’t this only be for nerds?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Evan Malone: <\/b>It is a good thing that people have diverse interests, as civilization requires vastly many other roles than product innovation<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Do you believe in microproduction, of brands of one, of everyone being their own business?<\/i><\/font>                      \n<\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> This is merely artisan craftsmanship with new tools.<\/b>  It has been
\naround since Neolithic humans made stone tools – some people were good
\nat it and everyone wants the best.  It has its place, but it will not
\nreplace all other forms of innovation and commerce.<\/p>\n


\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Joris Peels: How did Fab@home get started? <\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b>
\nI have always been interested in robotics, and I came to Cornell
\nUniversity for a master’s program in mechanical engineering and worked
\non a robotics project (RoboCup). Our RoboCup team won the world
\nchampionship, and I was enjoying graduate school, so I met with a few
\npotential advisors at Cornell.  Prof. Hod Lipson<\/a>
\nwas newly arrived at Cornell, and had some funding for a fantastic
\nproject that I found fantastic, and he agreed to take me on as a Ph.D.
\nstudent. The ideas was to make space exploration more automated,
\nfaster, and more cost effective by developing ways of using intelligent 3D printing systems to make complete working devices, in particular mobile robots<\/b>, on the surface of other planets. I started researching materials and designing a “printer” that could print everything<\/b> required for a working robot – wires, batteries, motors, sensors, transistors as well as the mechanical parts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Hod
\nand I were presenting this work at a variety of conferences, and there
\nwas strong interest from a variety of fields in an inexpensive system
\nthat could print with experimental bio-materials, and deposit multiple
\nmaterials simultaneously.<\/b>  Around the same time Hod was invited to the
\nopening of a Fab Lab in Norway by Prof. Gershenfeld<\/a> of MIT. Seeing the impact on the general public of access to inexpensive automated tools convinced Hod that we should develop an open-source, inexpensive, multi-material 3D printer.<\/b> 
\nWhen Hod presented this to me, I realized immediately that such a
\nproject would probably be of greater value to a greater number of
\npeople than my academic research, and I set about designing the
\nhardware and electronics.  Hod developed the first software
\napplication, and a couple of other students at Cornell (Jennifer Yao
\nand especially Dan Periard) contributed significantly through testing,
\ndocumentation, and website design.  It was supposed to be a “couple of
\nmonths” for the project, but it ended up taking about 18 months to get
\nit rolling.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: What was the first thing you 3D printed?<\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> I believe the first significant thing that I printed with a Fab@Home machine was a rubber bottle<\/b>
\n(“squeeze bottle”), although I had parts made by SLA as far back as
\n1998 for engineering purposes, so I’ve been around the technology for a
\nwhile.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: I read that you helped design a particle accelerator? Was it a pretty one?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b>
\nI did a contribute a small amount to the design of the Proton Driver –
\na major upgrade to the proton synchrotron accelerator chain at Fermi
\nNational Accelerator Laboratory, in Illinois, USA.  I worked on the
\nvacuum system, attempting to devise very large diameter vacuum chambers
\nthat could tolerate the vacuum forces without being overheated by the
\nextreme magnetic fields variations generated by the accelerator.  It
\nwould have been pretty, but to my knowledge, it was never built.  The
\nLHC at CERN stole away the funding!<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Joris Peels: When you now look at RepRap and Makerbot now, how does that feel?<\/p>\n

<\/font>Evan Malone:<\/b> RepRap came before Fab@Home and was an inspiration for how we designed
\nthe Fab@Home project. Fab@Home earned a lot of media attention in the
\nUS, and demonstrated some possibilities for 3D printers that RepRap had
\nnot publicized well (combining multiple materials, working with food,
\netc.).  I think this inspired RepRap<\/b> to improve, which they certainly
\nhave – they have grown enormously and RapMan machines are selling well
\nin the US through educational technology vendors<\/b>.  MakerBot took ideas
\nfrom RepRap and Fab@Home and has made a super cheap and very functional
\nsystem that has taken the public’s attention.  This is healthy
\ncompetition and beneficial to the industry and the future of personal
\n3D printing technology.

Joris Peels: What do you think of Shapeways?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/p>\n

Everyone in the open-source 3D printing world talks about how making
\nproduct innovation and automated manufacturing accessible to the
\ngeneral public will dramatically alter the global economy, though no
\none is quite sure of the details.  Shapeways, Ponoko, Etsy, Zazzle and
\nmany other organizations are inventing the tools and business models
\nwhich will shape that new economy.<\/b><\/p>\n

Joris Peels: What are we doing right or wrong?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Making the manufacturing more affordable by itself only helps
\nindividuals who have the resources and training to design in 3D from
\nscratch. Shapeways has greatly simplified the experience of designing a
\ncustomized product, which allows vastly many more people to experience
\ninventing their own product.<\/b><\/p>\n

Joris Peels: And yet instead of staying at Fab@home or founding a company that makes 3D printers you went to NextFab, why?<\/i><\/font>
\n<\/p>\n

Evan Malone<\/b>: There are 2 NextFabs.  <\/p>\n

NextFab Studio<\/a> is
\na company I founded in Philadelphia, PA, USA which is similar to
\nTechShop or the MIT FabLabs.  NextFab Studio teaches people about how
\nto invent and prototype complete products.<\/b>  It is just an extension of
\nthe idea that motivated me to do Fab@Home, but includes more
\ntraditional tools along with 3D printers.<\/p>\n

NextFab Organization<\/b><\/a> is a nonprofit educational and scientific
\norganization which I am setting up to help promote inexpensive design
\nand automated manufacturing tools worldwide<\/b>.  NextFab Organization aims
\nto promote the advancement and accessibility worldwide of all of the
\nopen-source and inexpensive 3D printer projects, as well as the other
\ninexpensive manufacturing tools such as ShopBot, Torchmate, and free
\nand inexpensive CAD\/CAM.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Why a place and not a printer?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> Providing tech support for Fab@Home made me want to teach people in person<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Why Philadelphia?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> Philadelphia is my adopted home for 22 years. I fell in love with
\nPhiladelphia<\/b> because it is unassuming, but very capable.<\/b> It has a
\nfantastic history of innovation and manufacturing, that people are
\nembracing today, in an enormous array of hobby and hacker groups, art
\nstudios and galleries, and community development organizations.  I
\nfound the right people to partner with in the University City Science
\nCenter<\/a>, and the Breadboard<\/a> program.<\/p>\n


\nJoris Peels: What machines do you guys have?<\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> You can see our equipment here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Will NextFab be a chain and pop up everywhere?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone: <\/b>Maybe, but right now it needs to survive its first incarnation.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: Are you a non-profit or a business?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone:<\/b> NextFab Studio is a “for-breakeven”<\/b> right now, but legally a business.  NextFab Organization is going to be a non-profit.<\/p>\n

Joris Peels: What will the future be like?<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Evan Malone: It will be what we make it<\/b><\/p>\n

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