Ellesmere Port gets Fab Lab

ELLESMERE Port’s Fab Lab opens today, which helps people design and make prototypes of new products.

The centre has a range of facilities to allow inventors to make products out of wood, acrylic, composite moulds, silicon, cardboard, sheet aluminium, plastics, copper foil and vinyl.

Its equipment allows for chemical moulding, laser and vinyl cutting and 3D scanning and printing.

The services can be used for free in return for sharing ideas among a global network of 150 Fab Labs, including six in the UK where the first was established in Manchester in 2010. Businesses and entrepreneurs can opt to protect their product development ideas by paying to use the service in private.

The Ellesmere Port Fab Lab is being opened by Business Secretary Vince Cable who is to be presented with a plant that sends tweets when it needs watering. It has been developed by Rachel O’Toole, 14, and Patrik Rabsky, 15, using a soil moisture sensor developed by Fab Lab volunteer Spencer Marsden.

The centre is a partnership between The Manufacturing Institute, Cheshire West and Chester Council, the Ellesmere Port Development Board, Cheshire Employer and Skills Development (CESD), and Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership.

Mr Cable said: “Centres such as Fab Lab at Ellesmere Port provide local businesses and members of the public with an opportunity to turn their innovative ideas into reality. This is community innovation at its best and has a key role to play in encouraging creative and digital skills in manufacturing. Crucially, it’s helping to introduce young people to the varied and exciting opportunities of a career in industry.”

Julie Madigan, chief executive of The Manufacturing Institute said: “Fab Labs give everyone, from young children to entrepreneurs and businesses, the capability to bring their ideas and inventions to life. It’s a proven grass roots approach that directly benefits the economy and the wider community. This local boutique manufacturing approach reverses the traditional top-down approach to technological advancement and is part of the next industrial revolution. The Manufacturing Institute is leading the roll out of Fab Labs across the UK.”