Fabricating dreams in 3D: FabLab Luzern.
| Auteur | Bakker, Dean |
| Fonction | Innovation: technology |
Just a few short train stops from Lucerne, located in a loft space on the Hochschule Luzern campus, is the local Fablab. It's one of several Fablab locations in Switzerland. The FabLab (abbrev. for "fabrication lab,") is a concept developed at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. USA and brought to life in Horw, Lucerne.
The current concept is to allow anyone to make use of specialized equipment to turn ideas into reality. The tools that are available are a 3D printer, a laser cutter, a large milling machine and various smaller tools. All these machines can be "rented" for you to make your project. The Fablab is also a place where people should be able to share ideas. It's a community of students and hobbyists where people help each other.
Christoph Reinhardt, the Lab Manager on duty, showed us around the lab as well as giving us some additional information about the machines. It turns out that the most used machine is actually the laser cutter. When you create something for the cutter you only need to think of a simple two-dimensional picture. This can easily be done with the software that is provided in the lab. The 3d printer on the other hand requires a little more skill to make your own 3d object. But never fear there are numerous templates that you can use to print something out.
The lab also functions as a training centre for learning specific subject matters. There is a course where you order your own 3D printer and build it yourself in the lab over several days and then take it home with you. The 3D printer can also produce its very own replacement parts, so once you have the machine at home, it is quite self-sufficient. It leaves your head spinning for the chicken before the egg concept. It really goes to show you how much technology has advanced. There is also another course where you build your own speakers or headphones. Christoph also demonstrated the laser cutter. It's a very impressive and large machine. However, before we can actually see the machine do its work we get the dreaded...
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