The Micro M3D, affordable 3D printing for the masses
Back in 2013 I read a paper titled Life-Cycle Economic Analysis of Distributed Manufacturing with Open-Source 3-D Printers. The study, which focused on the legendary RepRap 3D printer, was conducted by Joshua Pearce at Michigan Technological University and concluded: The results show that even making the extremely conservative assumption that [a] household would only use the printer to make the selected twenty products a year the avoided purchase cost savings would range from about $300 to $2000/year. Assuming the 25 hours of necessary printing for the selected products is evenly distributed throughout the year these savings provide a simple payback time for the RepRap in 4 months to 2 years and provide an ROI between>200% and >40%.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ONUG creates four new open source initiatives.
The problem is vast, but a few options are emerging.


