<\/p>\n
Now Ben Redford and Alex Smilansky, who co-founded the London-based company, are launching a Kickstarter<\/a> to make that vision a reality and bring FormBox<\/a> to the public.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FormBox is a desktop vacuum former \u2014 powered by your vacuum cleaner \u2014 that allows you to set up a mini-production line right on your desk. It can be used as a complement to a 3D printer, or you can use it on its own. Either way, Smilansky says, \u201cIt works super-fast and lets you make lots of things very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The device molds shapes in seconds, so you can move from hand-crafting or 3D-printing one thing at a time, to creating short runs of products anytime you want. You get the advantage of making multiple identical products, without needing the initial investment traditionally required to produce items in large numbers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Smilansky says that the co-founders\u2019 experience in product design and manufacturing has allowed them \u201cto see how much the method of <\/p>\n His company aims to remove that barrier by creating a series of mini-machines designed to fit on your desk and work with each other. The FormBox is only the first of these. \u201cIf you can produce things from your office,\u201d he explains, \u201cthen your capital expenditure goes down, your lead times go down, your risk goes down, and the size of your bets can go down.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The co-founders want to enable more people to bring their ideas into the world. As Smilansky puts it, \u201cWe think that when you democratize the ability to make, great things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The two founders met each other during their university days as design students at Goldsmiths<\/a>, but they got to know each other well while working at the product development studio Mint Digital<\/a>. At Goldsmiths, Redford\u2019s final project had incorporated vacuums and washing machines into small-scale manufacturing processes; at Mint, his work showed him even more about how massive production tools could be miniaturized.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Redford\u2019s early ideas intrigued the people at Makerversity<\/a> in central London, where Mayku is now based. (At Makerversity, the Mayku guys sit within shouting distance of the team from Sensible Object, which we profiled a few months ago<\/a>.) Mayku went on to win backing from the Spark innovation fund<\/a> of Britain\u2019s Design Council as well as Makerversity Works<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Both founders are used to putting out a product and then adapting it, which is standard practice in the software business. But they also both love to work back and forth between physical and digital projects, which makes that process more challenging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quickly iterating designs is still a good way to go, Smilansky says. However, he adds, \u201cIt\u2019s quite interesting to think about how that applies to making physical products.\u201d For example, when you produce a physical object, you can\u2019t immediately amend it as you would with a buggy piece of software. And because slower production cycles imply bigger risks at each step, you need to be a little more careful about which feedback you decide to incorporate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When it came to the FormBox, the pair wanted to make something that could be made in small or large batches. They started with a \u201cbeast\u201d of a design made from sheet steel, then went through four more iterations \u2014 each one smaller than the last \u2014 to create an inexpensive, simple-to-use product that looked great and worked right out of the box. They\u2019ve benefited along the way from working with a factory in Wales that\u2019s been making vacuum formers used in industry for many years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The co-founders knew that it wouldn\u2019t be enough to create a great device without supporting materials. That\u2019s why they\u2019ve worked hard on the Mayku Library, which allows users to download step-by-step instructions, buy templates and materials, and see designs that the Mayku team has curated from both professional designers and the maker community. \u201cWithout that,\u201d Smilansky explains, \u201cit\u2019s like having a phone without any apps on it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The entire setup is geared so that new users will learn by using it, rather than reading a manual or learning software. \u201cYou can just play with it,\u201d Smilansky says. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to see what happens when you completely remove any barrier for anybody to start doing [trial-&-error learning].\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fusion 360 has worked in a similar way for Redford and Smilansky as they\u2019ve designed all of the FormBox models. Smilansky says that \u201cIt\u2019s one of those few pieces of software I\u2019ve used where it\u2019s very evident how to do the thing you want to do, even if you don\u2019t [fully] understand how the software works.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Using Fusion 360 has allowed them to develop the universal vacuum adapter that makes the FormBox compatible with any household vacuum cleaner, and to develop 3D-printed molds in the prototyping process. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really good experience for us,\u201d Smilansky adds. \u201cWe found it really liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For now, the team\u2019s focus is on making a success out of their Kickstarter campaign. \u201cAfter that,\u201d Smilansky says, \u201cit\u2019s really going to be about responding to what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They want to get an early community going with the FormBox, which will help them find out what kind of people use it and what they make <\/p>\n While there\u2019s no timeline for creating the RotoBox, InjectoBox, CarvBox, and other ideas still on the drawing board, Smilansky\u2019s gut feeling is that Mayku might introduce one new machine per year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At each step along the path, they\u2019ll be focused on empowering makers to create things never before invented. \u201cWe think that it\u2019s really important that the maker is part of the process,\u201d Smilansky says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe think that what\u2019s possible is so vast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Set up a mini-production line right on your desk with FormBox – a desktop vacuum former.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2199,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Mayku1\"](\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Mayku1.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
Start a Production Line at Your Kitchen Table<\/h2>\n
Promoting a Vision of Democratized Manufacturing<\/h2>\n
![\"All](\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/All-of-the-things_small.jpg\")
manufacture is the limiting factor for somebody with an idea.\u201d In other words, he says, \u201cIf you have something you want to make real, the main thing that stops you is how it gets made.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom University Project to Entrepreneurial Venture<\/h2>\n
Fusing Digital and Physical Design Principles<\/h2>\n
![\"Mayku](\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Mayku-library-iMac-on-desk_large.jpg\")
A User-Friendly Product and Service for Producing Physical Goods<\/h2>\nKickstarter and Beyond<\/h2>\n
![\"FormBox](\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/FormBox-package_small.jpg\")
with it. As the entrepreneurs help those users advance their use of the machine, they\u2019ll also look for more formal investment funding, build out the Mayku team, and create more tabletop machines.<\/p>\n