RE: What's in a name........?

From: Erkut Negis (erkut@innotek.com.tr)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 19:09:33 EET


I think that, autofabrication or autofab (these names originally used by M.
Burns) are perfect names for explaining these new additive manufacturing
technologies. Hence, the machines that utilize autofabrication technologies
can be named as autofabricators, autofabrication machines or shortly,
fabbers.

"Rapid Prototyping, RP" is actually a name for describing a goal and/or
specific application. There might be many other technologies for RP other
than autofab, for example, CNC machining, or computer simulations (virtual
prototyping). In the future many more technologies may be developed to serve
RP industry.

Although, rapid tooling, direct manufacturing and medical applications of
autofabrication technologies continuously growing, in the early days of the
tech. development, fabbers was exclusively used for RP applications. So,
the name RP machines comes from that fact. Now, it is very difficult or
impossible to change the name. There was many discussions on this topic
before, they can be found from the list archives...

Regards
------------------------------------
Erkut Negis
erkut@innotek.com.tr

INNOTEK,
Innovative Technology & Products,
Engineering & Int'l Trade Co. Ltd.

istanbul TURKEY

URL : www.innotek.com.tr
Phone : +90 (212) 485-4747
--------------------------------------

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