For a small country that is home to, arguably, the largest 3D printer manufacturer in the world, Israel is quite active on the front of personalized manufacturing and much of the merit for that goes to Ohad Meyuhas, founder of FabLabIl and Post-Secondary Education Program Manager at Stratasys. I had a chance to meet Ohad at the recent 3D Printing Conference in Tel Aviv and he painted me an accurate picture of the Fab Labs’ recent evolutions.
After receiving his architecture degree with honors from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 2010, he attended the IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalunya), where he received his Master. He then set out to establish the Fab Lab network in Israel and so far his efforts have resulted in three different laboratories in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.
These activities are focused toward the introduction of digital fabrication into the Israeli educational system as well as rising the public’s awareness in general to the benefits of personal fabrication technologies. In Haifa this resulted in the Wanger Family FabLab at the MadaTech Museum and in the upcoming opening of another laboratory in Jerusalem.
Ohad’s main activities are centered on the FabLabIl (Fab Lab Israel), that he co-founded and is now co-managing, located in the Jesse Cohen neighbourhood in Holon, in the southern part of the city. His research projects include exploring the relationship between digital fabrication, education, and occupational therapy, and how these new technologies can shape our daily lives.
The Fab Lab operates as an educational and activity center for the entire community in one of Tel Aviv’s poorer neighbourhoods, by organizing various activities for both senior and younger citizens, and by offering all the digital fabrication tools demanded by the MIT alumni’s envisioned international network,
This means a large laser cutter (130×130 mm) at 3.5 NIS (about €0,70) per minute; an industrial CNC milling machine (152x274x60 mm) priced at 4.5 NIS (about €90) per minute, a plotter machine at 2 NIS per minute.
Although the Fab Lab is very much focused on offering and teaching all forms of digital manufacturing, 3D printing is a major focus, with a number of different FFF 3D printers present with PLA and ABS capabilities and offering 50 NIS (about €10) per one hour of printing, with plaster 3D printing offered at 2 NIS per gram.These include a system from local manufacturer Something3D.
FablabIl also collaborates with ArtLab, the Israeli Center for Digital Art, also located in Holon, on projects such as Fine Mechanics a study of different approaches and practices for using technology in the arts. The exhibition also marked the establishment of a group of artists who will operate in a creative and research setting in the FabLab, and strive to conduct critical-artistic thinking and creative processes through technology. That is a goal that the entire 3D printing and digital manufacturing industry, from large companies to personal manufacturing hubs, can share.
