The original idea
In 2005 Adrian Bowyer, mechanical engineering lecturer at the University of Bath (UK), starts the RepRap project (Replicating Rapid-prototyper) with a provocative premise: build a fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printer that can print most of its own parts. A self-replicating machine — or as close as possible with available materials.
The first version, RepRap “Darwin”, is completed in 2007: about 48% of the parts are self-printed, the rest is commodity hardware and electronics. GPLv3 licence for mechanical designs, open electronics schematics.
The movement
RepRap spreads as a community project: between 2008 and 2012 hundreds of volunteers design variants — Mendel, Huxley, Prusa Mendel. The first companies producing RepRap-based kits appear (MakerBot originally, then many others).
The open licence enables proliferation: anyone can copy, modify, sell. Competitive pressure rapidly drops prices — an FDM printer costing 2-3,000 € in 2009 drops to 500 € by 2015, 200-300 € by 2025.
Prusa i3
In 2012 Josef Průša (Czech Republic) publishes the Prusa i3 design (from Iteration 3 of his Mendel work). It becomes the de facto standard for hobbyist 3D printing:
- Simple, rigid design, easy to build
- Printable parts + steel/aluminium frame
- Affordable kit cost (~500 €)
- Excellent documentation and active community
Prusa Research (founded 2012 by Průša in Prague) releases the Prusa i3 MK2 (2016), MK3 (2018), MK3S+, MK4 (2023), CORE One (2024) — assembled machines with open source slicer PrusaSlicer (fork of Slic3r). Prusa Research is one of the few sustainable OSS hardware companies at industrial scale.
Ecosystem
The 3D printing open source stack includes:
- Slicer: PrusaSlicer, Cura (Ultimaker, 2014+), OrcaSlicer — translate 3D models into G-code
- Firmware: Marlin, Klipper (2017, Kevin O’Connor), RepRapFirmware
- Formats: STL, 3MF, OpenSCAD, STEP
- Model sharing portals: Thingiverse (MakerBot, 2008), Printables (Prusa, 2021), MakerWorld
In the Italian context
The Italian 3D printing community is very active since 2011-2012: Fablab Torino, Officine Arduino, Opendot Milan introduce RepRap/Prusa across hundreds of local projects. WASP (Ravenna, 2012) is a historic Italian producer of open FDM printers and printers for clay/sustainable materials. Sharebot (Nibionno) is another industrial OSS player. noze has used Prusa i3 MK3 for rapid prototyping of IoT device enclosures and R&D demos.
References: RepRap Project (Adrian Bowyer, University of Bath, 2005). RepRap Darwin (2007). GPLv3 licence. Prusa i3 (Josef Průša, 2012). Prusa Research (Prague, founded 2012). PrusaSlicer, Marlin, Klipper. Italian companies: WASP, Sharebot.