Ponoko

Ponoko is an online service for distributed manufacturing and on-demand manufacturing.

Distribution Model

Ponoko builds on the success of the information age, and applies it to digital fabrication.

Ponoko receives customers' digital designs, then has it printed in 3D or cut at the time of purchase by laser cutters or CNC milling machines or 3D printers. The manufacturers exist in a distributed network that is growing around the world, and often the manufacturer closest to the customer is sourced. Customers can then sell their objects either via the Ponoko site, or their own retail outlets.

While Ponoko uses desktop manufacturers to produce small-scale products, many believe that such distributed, on-demand manufacturing could create a major paradigm shift in manufacturing.[1] As of 2009, the Ponoko site had 20,000 items available.

History

Ponoko was founded by David ten Have and Derek Elley in 2007[2] and launched in September the same year at TechCrunch 40.[3] In 2009, Ponoko formed a relationship with 100K Garages, a decentralized network of shop-bot manufacturers in North America. In 2010, the company began forming similar relationships and opening offices in Europe in partnership with local manufacturing services Formulor, Vectorealism and RazorLab.

In 2011 Autodesk announced a partnership with Ponoko as part of their 123D offering.[4] Late in 2011 Autodesk announced the launch of 123D Make and 123D Catch offerings[5] using Ponoko Personal FactoryTM to offer fabrication services to users of these tools.

At Maker Faire 2012 Ponoko announced[6] that they were the fabrication platform behind Local Motors Local Forge and MadeSolid.

gollark: Dale is obsolete.
gollark: Python IS to be used for all build systems.
gollark: No it's not.
gollark: (as such, Firefox needs python for unrelated reasons, but you know)
gollark: The actual compiled one doesn't. It's a build-time dependency.

See also
  • Mass Customization

References
  1. The Next Industrial Revolution, Bits are the New Atoms. Wired Magazine (front cover article). February 2010.
  2. "The Future of Manufacturing". Inc.com.
  3. "New companies, continued: MusicShake, Cake Financial, Ponoko, TripIt standout - VentureBeat - News - by Contributor". VentureBeat.
  4. "Democratizing Design: Autodesk's CEO Carl Bass Announces 123D - Wired". Wired. 3 May 2011.
  5. "Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses". CNET. CBS Interactive.
  6. http://fora.tv/2012/05/19/Apps_for_Makers_The_Power_of_3D_Fabrication
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