A Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small scale workshop that functions as a research center where prototype designs are printed for further assessment before giving the go ahead to produce it in large quantities. Fab labs tend to require a collection of different (expensive) machines. The machines they have at their disposal allow them to make almost anything. This includes technology-enabled products generally perceived as limited to mass production.
A fablab is a portable machine shop / manufacturing facility under development at the MIT Media Lab. A small number of fablabs have been deployed around the world.
Fab labs are a common platform for open design, a.k.a. open hardware, allowing designs to be shared around the world electronically, and manufactured locally.
Fab labs around the world
A list of fab labs per country can be found at fab.cba.mit.edu and fabfoundation.org
See also
External links
- Wikipedia:Fab lab
- p2pfoundation:Fab Labs
- Fab Lab Central at CBA
- Fabrication Lab's Webpage
- economist story
- Fab@Home Home Page
- Kendall College of Art and Design Digital Fabrication Lab
- Fablab in Norway
- The Fab Fund, launched by The Fab Company
- Hobby Robotics
References
- Gershenfeld, Neil A.,W Fab : the coming revolution on your desktop--from personal computers to personal fabrication, Basic Books, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-465-02745-8
