Contributor blog post for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), 2015

3D printing: bringing users closer to the factory

We’re in a throwaway culture of convenience, strongly influenced by the consumption of short-lived items. There’s a disconnection between users and the products they use, and this may in part be because companies and manufacturers are far from the users, both geographically and in spirit. Users often have no idea how their things are put together or made; they're sealed up, with their inner workings hidden from the user. Of course, this might be because of high IP ratings for certain products, or for safety reasons in others. If we can bring users closer to the factory, an object may become more valuable and increase the users’ knowledge about the objects they use, enabling further self-reliance.

3D printers could enable this, and are expected to become as popular in the home in 10 years time as traditional printers are today. 3D printing can drastically reduce the complex network needed for the production of products and their many components, and therefore allow users more control over the production of the items they use.

A spanner was recently emailed to the International Space Station so it could be printed - something that would otherwise have been very expensive and energy consuming. In a similar way, platforms such as Open Desk: a service that allows designers to upload designs such as that of a table or chair, allows users that may be on the other side of the world to source a local manufacturer to make it instead -  allowing designs to cover most of their journey digitally rather than in physical form, and bringing users closer to the factory.

Creating products that can easily be disassembled for repair or separating into their separate components for recycling is also important for closed loop design. Is the product designed to be easily taken apart for repair or for separating into its components at the end of its working life for responsible recycling? Can we use technology like 3D printers to allow for a shift towards a culture of repair, allowing us to rattle off a new kettle element if we need one, and save us accepting a kettle as broken and throwing it away and ending up in landfill - an all too common end for a kettle and its valuable materials. 

Social platform Fixperts, whom I interviewed back in 2013: is a social platform that connects designers with people that need something fixing, with the aim of producing a quick, low-cost solution to prevent the object being accepted as broken and being discarded. Platforms like Fixperts are encouraging that culture of repair, and with materials such a Sugru, a self-setting rubber material developed by Fixperts co-founder James Carrigan, repairing and maintaining are becoming easier; whether being used to rejoin a snapped component, say, or for reinforcing the component to prevent it snapping in the first place. 3D printing is already being brought closer to users with the emergence of 3D printing hubs that are springing up in cities around the world. While these are predominantly being used for prototyping, it is a sign of things to come in terms of accessibility to manufacture.

Repair using 3D printing has come a long way from only four or five years ago when I remember it being known as rapid prototyping whilst studying at university. It is now even being developed for printing human organs, as demonstrated in this TED talk by Dr Anthony Atala, who printed a prototype human kidney live on stage. The technology is edging closer towards turning the imagination of the creators of the 70’s tv show, The Six Million Dollar Man, into a reality; and products can be kept alive and repaired in a similar way.

3D printers are a new tool for a culture of repair, and can bring users into the factory - encouraging conscious consumption and heighten users connections with the products they use. And, if used responsibly, reduce the processes required within the Circular Economy.

Royal Society of Arts. Words and photography by Todd Harrison