Fab City: Search underway for best product ideas

9 June 2022

Voting underway - first-prize winners to launch prototype

Around 95 ideas for products to be made in Hamburg’s FabLab have been submitted as part of the so-called Maker Challenge. The entries range from bicycle lights for bends in roads, smart waste bins, a wheelchair that can climb stairs, refrigerators that store cold at night, solar-energy heated clothes racks and products made from upcycled coffee grounds. The ideas for new products must have social or ecological benefits. Calls were also issued for innovations and functional improvements to existing products. This comes amid the growing importance of digital manufacturing e.g., 3D printing. Hamburg joined the global Fab City network in 2019 to spread digital production methods and to encourage manufacturing companies to settle in Hamburg backed by the German government.

Public vote on good ideas

Residents of Hamburg and the metropolitan region can vote here on the best product idea until June 9, 2022. Ten 3D printing vouchers, that can be redeemed in a Fab Lab, will be raffled among voters. The ideas that top the community vote go straight into the prototyping phase and stand a chance of winning the main prize. An expert jury will select other product ideas from a shortlist of prototypes. Special prizes will be awarded to ideas that are particularly innovative, sustainable or have added value for society.

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