clipped from www.pcworld.caA Factory on Your Desk
One day you might order a new coffee pot, or even a new laptop, and not have to wait for delivery. Instead, you'll use a printer-size factory to download and build it. Already, 3D inkjet printers build prototypes for industry. Chemical giant BASF is developing inks that will enable ordinary printers to spit out paper or plastic circuit boards. For $2400, you can buy a Fab@home desktop fabricator that lets you build objects out of acrylic; the company hopes to produce units that can build with multiple materials in the future.
The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology predicts that personal nanofactories will be in operation by 2020. Jamais Cascio, founder of Open the Future and a director at CRN, says nanofactories will have a huge impact: "If it becomes cheaper and more efficient to have something printed out locally instead of made in China, it will have a big effect on things like trade balances, international labor, and...our national economy."
First page: Technology: The next 25 years
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