 |
I just finished reading, Will 3-D Printing End Mass Manufacturing, on Mashable.
I also had a link to an open source manufacturing site bookmarked from a couple months ago.
And of course I live and breathe Web APIs on a daily basis.
So after reading all this, my mind starts thinking about open source manufacturing processes bundled with open web APIs, and the future of 3-D printing and / or manufacturing.
- Open Source Manufacturing - Open source manufacturing lets you download hardware, blue-prints, and instructions for any potential manufacturing process.
- Web-APIs - An interface that allows application developers to build on top of data or another application.
- 3-D Printing -3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material.
When you start thinking of this in terms of local, cottage style manufacturing, I can see lots ofpossibilities.
Imagine, a group of people in a small town, research a need for a component or product. Buy a 3-D Printer, register it with a open API manufacturing network (say based on Google Cloud Print). Now they can take orders in real-time over the Internet.
An open source manufacturing network that uses web APIs to receive jobs in real-time and builds products using 3-D printers.
