- published: 21 Jun 2015
- views: 138928
The RepRap project is an initiative to develop a 3D printer that can print most of its own components. RepRap (short for replicating rapid prototyper) uses a variant of fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing technique. The project calls it Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) to avoid trademark issues around the "fused deposition modeling" term.
As an open design, all of the designs produced by the project are released under a free software license, the GNU General Public License.
To date, the RepRap project has released four 3D printing machines: "Darwin", released in March 2007, "Mendel", released in October 2009, "Prusa Mendel" and "Huxley" released in 2010. Developers have named each after famous biologists, as "the point of RepRap is replication and evolution".
Due to the self-replicating ability of the machine, authors envision the possibility to cheaply distribute RepRap units to people and communities, enabling them to create (or download from the internet) complex products without the need for expensive industrial infrastructure. They intend for the RepRap to demonstrate evolution in this process as well as for it to increase in number exponentially.