Thanks, Erkut, for your support. I said in my earlier e-mail that there were a few people using the term "fabbers," and I'm glad somebody has chimed in to show that it's true.
Just one minor point I'd argue. It is not impossible to change the name from what most people currently use. This is because the "most people" we are talking about today are a tiny fraction of the number of people that will be involved in where this technology is going. Most of *those* people have still never heard of RP or SFF or 3-D printers or fabbers. For them we can call it whatever we want and it will be new to them. All we have to do is show them that it will make them richer or happier or sexier if they get involved, and they won't care what we call it.
The name of this industry is going to be decided by whoever raises the most money to promote it. Or maybe by somebody who figures out a really cool guerilla marketing strategy that doesn't take that much money. The only thing I know for sure is that my mother will never buy something called a "rapid prototyping machine."
Best regards,
Marshall Burns
President, Ennex Corporation
Marshall@Ennex.com
Los Angeles, USA, (310) 397-1314
http://www.Ennex.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erkut Negis" <erkut@innotek.com.tr>
To: <rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 09:09
Subject: RE: What's in a name........?
> 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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