Open Source Machine Tools: The road to Production Sovereignty and Circular Economy

Pandemic, war and climate change manifest a turning point leading to disrupted value chains and local product shortages. It also highlights the need to build resilience in areas that are highly affected.

But how can we contribute to achieve resilience?

With this Webinar I will provide some insights into the ongoing research projects “Fab City” and “Interfacer” connected to the Fab City approach. One of several pathways to a more resilient city is the emerging movement of FabCities, where small lots of physical products can be manufactured in distributed open production sites corresponding to local demand. End consumers benefit from this just as much as craftsmen and last but not least industry.

In the two research projects we are looking into the hardware as well as the software, because the fundament of a future sustainable value creation and circular economy is not only about physical infrastructure such as distributed open production sites and Open Source Machine Tools. It is also about the corresponding digital infrastructure.

Interfacer aims at the redevelopment, dissemination and first application of an Open Source Software system called Fab City Operating Systems (FCOS), which supports all processes along the value chain in distributed development and production and implements them in a federated system.

In sum, the webinar offers an impression of future insights into production machines, the hard- and software as well as innovative ways to use production technologies that are oriented to local fundamentals and urban needs to enhance innovative and sustainable production.