“The idea is simple. Network together 3D printers through a web interface. Get users to register their printer availability with a map pin, so users can find their nearest one. “
It’s a manufacturing network that’s distributed within communities around the world. It’s mashing-up the real world need for industrial production with the digital networks and individuals that share them, like Facebook for products. That means anyone can connect their home 3D printer to 3D Hubs, transforming it into a local node on a global distributed manufacturing facility… it is, quite literally, making money.
Imagine the scene. You get home from work to find a plastic plumbing widget cooling on your printer bed. You get an email from someone you’ve never met, paying you to deliver it a few streets away for them. They’re emailing from Japan, you’re in Edinburgh. They’ve just saved money on international shipping and you’ve made money from the 3D printer that used to do nothing all day whilst you were at work. It sounds like the opening scene of a new sci-fi detective show, but it’s not. It’s one possible future for global mass production that might transform the global manufacturing economy and with it, society. That’s what 3D Hubs founders Bram de Zwart and Brian Garret are aiming for.
The rest of the story on 3DFocus.uk