Fab lab (digital fabrication laboratory) is a small workshop that provides everyone with the opportunity to individually manufacture the products and parts they need.

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A fab lab is typically equipped with a set of flexible, computer-controlled tools that span several different length scales and materials, with the goal of creating "almost anything."

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Such a laboratory usually has, in addition to hand tools and measuring instruments, modern CNC machines.

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The goal is to give a chance to make “almost everything” from “almost nothing”.

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The creation of fab labs began in the 2000s, mainly at universities; currently, there are thousands of fab lab workshops in different countries of Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa, and Australia.

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For example, at the end of 2017, there were 1,205 officially registered fab labs in the world on all continents except Antarctica; the largest number of them were in the United States (about 170), France and Italy (about 140 in each of these countries).

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As of November 2019, there were 1,830 Fab Labs worldwide, and there are currently 2,300+ Fab Labs worldwide.

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As a rule, a fab lab is created on the basis of a large organization, for example, a university, and is considered as one of the laboratories to which any student or employee has access, as well as, under certain conditions, those who wish "from the outside".

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Among the sources of funding for fab labs:

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● The founding organization itself: for the university, having a fab lab is beneficial, as it allows it to increase the prestige of the educational institution and attract applicants.

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● Individuals paying for access to fab lab equipment.

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● Students ordering a layout for a course project, etc..

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● Various authorities whose small orders cannot be placed at factories or large prototyping centers.

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Usually, a fab lab has the following equipment:

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● Laser cutters, plasma cutters, water-jet cutters, knife cutters for cutting sheet materials.

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● 3-axis CNC machines: 3 or more axes, computer-controlled milling and turning machines (subtractive processes).

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● Rapid prototyping tools: usually it is a "3D printers" for the production of products from plastics, composite materials, metals (additive processes).

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● PCB milling equipment: 2-dimensional, high-precision milling machines.

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● Workstations for developing, assembling and testing microprocessor and digital electronics.

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Fab labs are essentially the modern-day successors of the DIY (Do It Yourself!) subculture.

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This subculture has been and remains popular in the world.

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The fab lab program itself was initiated at the Media Lab at MIT in the mid-2000s as a collaboration between the Grassroots Invention Group and the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) at MIT, and broadly explored how knowledge relates to the ability to physically implement something, and to what extent the community of ordinary people can be empowered by technology.

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Grassroots Invention Group is no longer part of the Media Lab, and the Center for Bits and Atoms consortium still actively pursues research in areas related to characterization and fabrication, but it no longer hosts or supports labs (apart from the mobile fab lab).

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Mobile fab labs allow a group of enthusiasts from an educational institution or just `from the street` to order and rent for some time digital fab lab equipment with delivery, training and consultations, to implement their innovative projects.

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The fab lab concept also grew out of a popular course at MIT (MAS.863) called "How to Make (Almost) Anything."

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Being a Fab Lab means engaging with a global community of learners, educators, technologists, researchers, makers, and innovators - a knowledge-sharing network.

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The Fab Foundation's mission is to bridge the digital divide, which means: providing access to the tools, knowledge, and resources to learn, innovate, and invent using technology and digital fabrication to enable anyone to make (almost) anything.

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A list of all official Fab Labs is maintained by the community via the website https://fablabs.io/

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https://fablabs.io/ is a human-centered design platform, primarily for makers, but we welcome any maker, hacker, DIYer, and digital fabrication enthusiast who wants to create, collaborate, and share projects and knowledge.

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What is a Fablab? How to create a Fablab? Where are Fablabs located around the world?

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At https://fablabs.io/ you can find a list of Fab labs, a map of Fab lab locations, API documentation, forum, completed projects, used digital equipment, the Fab Foundation, the Fab Academy program, Fab Academy nodes, ...