Ponoko Envisions Web Becoming Personal Manufacturing Platform
excerpted from
Full article is available for a fee
Jenée D. White, December 10, 2007
An ambitious New Zealand startup has created a web-based ‘personal
manufacturing platform’ -- a network and marketplace which it hopes will
connect designers, manufacturers, and buyers, opening new opportunities
to create individualized products on a global scale. For now Ponoko
relies on laser cutting, limiting the range of products that can be
created using the service. The idea could take off as other rapid
manufacturing methods become part of the service.
Ponoko calls itself the world’s
first personal manufacturing platform. Co-founders David ten Have and
Sally Coe say their site is geared towards providing a non-complex
customized manufacturing process which will allow anyone to become a
manufacturer. “Our vision is a world where everyone can create and make
anything they can dream of, on demand,” says Ponoko chief strategic
officer Derek Elley.
Ponoko’s initial market is designers looking to bring their ideas to
market quickly, by creating an environment where consumers can
inexpensively order non-mass produced items. By linking designers with
digital manufacturing facilities, products can be made from any
connected location, preferably close to the customer. Ponoko wraps the
designer, the manufacturing facility and the order process into one
digital package, providing digital manufacturers the ability to quote
jobs, communicate with consumers, receive design files and order
materials.
For designers looking to sell designs, the site requires the use of
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files. Using My Ponoko the designer
uploads a picture of the design accompanied by a description, pricing
information, tags and profile. The designer is given the freedom to
design the product license; a range of licenses are available based on
the Creative Commons legal
model. The design can be viewed in the Ponoko Showroom, where buyers are
able to contact the designer directly.
The
full article is available for a fee at CADCAMNet
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