Monday 6 June 2011

BLACK COUNTRY ATELIER : THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING

Is rapid prototyping (still) the future of manufacturing? Professor Adrian Bower, the inventor of Reprap, an in-home 3D printer, thinks so.

Black Country Atelier: Production Line from Black Country Atelier on Vimeo.



'If Dr Bowyer's vision is realised there could be profound implications for the global economy. Instead of large companies manufacturing large numbers of consumer goods and distributing them to shops, consumers would buy or share designs on the internet, manufacturing items on their own replication machines', said The Guardian back in 2006 (rapid prototyping has been cited as 'the future' for over five years.)

Regardless, the work of Black Country Atelier is fascinating and this video does a good job of clearing up some of the myth around rapid prototyping. There's also some great footage of iron casting at Blists Hill Victorian Town.

Black Country Atelier has three installations at The Festival of Britain on London's Southbank, running throughout the summmer. On the weekend of the 13th and 14th August the Midlands 3D prototyping hub will be 'turning the Royal Festival Hall into a fully functioning workshop' as part of the Power and Production weekend.