Royce Florian
I had the opportunity to grow up in a Connecticut factory, where I spent many days after class. Since I was a child my family introduced me to different manufacturing techniques, protocols, and hard work. I still remember sweeping the machine floor when I was eight, or operating the mills when I was a teenager. When I reached a more mature age, I was slowly introduced to technical drawings, drafting software and computer aided machining. It has been the last seven years where I have become involved with the FABlabs and the maker revolution. In hindsight, growing up around industry was a unique experience that had influenced everything that I have worked towards since. “Making” is something that I can not escape, I was born into it.
It is what I experienced in the factories that inspired me to want to study Physics and Mechanics in Paris. As a freshmen at the "University of Pierre et Marie Curie", I helped organise the student association that would later become the first Fablab of the Sorbonne University. The Fablab felt very familiar to me as we were quickly surrounded by 3D printers, CNC machines & lasers, but the objectives were very different from the factories. We were helping students, prototyping for the physics & mechanics department and working with start-ups. After a few years working for the University I worked with a Parisien start-up to help develope an algorithm and online marketplace to allow for makerspaces to solicit their laser cutting services. This was my first "light bulb" moment where I saw the definite potentional for Makerspaces to adapt their flexibility and reactivity to the fast paced, small series productions of the design, art and Start-up community.
The last year, I have been building the concept of a compact factory in the center of Paris. My goal is to bring all of the rigor and efficiency of the classic factory and marry it to the adaptability and reactivity of the modern "Makerspace". Our co-working houses another company that only tends to the 3D printing machines. We have installed 20 3D printers, a laser cutter and CNC machine in the center of Paris and we are working to put everything on network so that our small team of 2 co-founders and our 1 co-working resident can run the entire factory. Our community is only entrepreneurs who are looking to have things prototyped or produced.
We have trimmed out the teaching and community center aspects of the Fablabs for the sake of production and assembly line effeciency. However, my roots are still with the community and we are actively writing articles on: 3D modeling, 3D mechanical & thermodynamic simulations as well as machine automation and fundamental physics pertaining to the maker machines. I hope my past experiences and current expertise can help inspire the makers of our new industrial revolution where we design smart, make robotically and sell locally.
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