About

Our services

The Fab Lab offers a multitude of services to the community! We also offer workshops, professional development services, start-up coaching and much more:

Education

echofab offers introductory digital fabrication and educational workshops for young people aged 7 to 35. It also offers support services for teaching professionals.

We can also support your educational establishment in setting up and developing a Fab Lab.

Training courses

echofab offers training in digital manufacturing equipment.

As Communautique's Fab Lab, accredited by the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail for the purposes of the Act to promote workforce skills development and recognition, some of our training fees are deductible for companies.

Company

echofab helps companies conceive and prototype new ideas, through problem-solving animation, prototyping, including proof-of-concept, signage, design and ecodesign.

echofab also offers a Corporate Residency program in digital fabrication and design, where a team can use all the Fab Lab's resources to meet a challenge or develop its creativity.

Events

echofab creates tailor-made activities for events related to digital fabrication, education, science and technology.

These activities are suitable for people of all ages, whatever their level of familiarity with the technologies used.

Our staff are also available to speak at various public forums, roundtables and conferences.

Manifesto

échoFab is a prototype for a neighborhood digital workshop

Prototype

We're exploring and experimenting with different approaches to digital fabrication, and creating a community of people motivated by these new practices, with the aim of making them available to the public.

Digital workshop

We are a digital fabrication workshop. Starting with an idea, we conceptualize it using a variety of computer and electronic tools, and then realize it using the machines and tools at our disposal, many of them computer-controlled.

Community

We believe that digital fabrication is at the dawn of its expansion across our societies, and we foresee that in the future, neighborhoods, villages and schools will be equipped with labs that respond to their needs and realities. We believe that digital fabrication is not just a means to build an object, but a tool to grow people within a community, creatively, economically and socially. Our raison d'être is to invite citizens to participate in both the process of setting up the workshop and using it. We believe in the crucial importance of sharing material means of production and the knowledge they generate.

Local

We're located in the heart of Montreal's Central District. We collaborate with Fab Labs and Internet users from all over the world, and forge links with communities of tinkerers, fabricators, technicians, academics and citizens. As the district is a fundamental part of our city's civic life, bringing us together in a geographical location, we want to position ourselves as a creative hub within this community.

Our reading of the Fab Lab charter

Our reading of the charter has led us to determine 3 moral conditions of free access for echoFab users

Collaboration

You commit to participating in other projects underway at the time of your visit. You share your knowledge with others, and others share their knowledge with you.

Documentation

You undertake to document what you do, so that others can redo or improve it. Note that this does not prevent you from exploiting your project commercially, by choosing an appropriate license.

Share

You agree to share this documentation, by publishing it on our wiki, or on our social media. This sharing can be done under a license that prohibits commercial exploitation of your project, but authorizes personal reproduction, such as a Creative Commons license.

Our team

These are the pillars of our Fab Lab

François Auclair

Fab Lab coordinator, Fab Academy instructor

Annie Ferlatte

Strategic Ecodesign Coordinator, Fab Academy Instructor

Rino Côté

Artistic and digital project manager

Noémie Carrier

Fab Lab mediator

Monique Chartrand

Founder and Business Development Manager

Geoffroi Garon-Épaule

Researcher in residence and digital badge expert

Guillaume Pelletier

Web Developer

Guillaume LaBarre

General Manager

And our volunteers

André Théberge

Thomas Cortina

Guillaume Tremblay

Phonesavanh Thongsouksanoumane

Michel Ferlatte

Louise Carier

Our partners

We're proud of our partners!

Our membership and accreditations

The organizations we believe in

How to support échoFab

Looking for a way to get involved with us?

By donating equipment

We accept donations of computer and electronic equipment, printers, cutters, various traditional tools and power tools. Even if they're damaged or aging, our community can get them up and running again, and make them safe to use. Businesses wishing to dispose of tools, instruments or computer equipment are also invited to do so through our recovery program.
Materials in demand: optical tools (e.g. microscope), woodworking tools (saw, sanders, drill press), electronics and robotics equipment, computer adapters of all kinds (USB, VGA, DVI, RS232), electronic components, large-format printers, vinyl cutter.

By becoming a partner

Businesses, non-profit organizations, social economy enterprises and public bodies can propose projects or become supporting members of échoFab. Thanks to your participation and support, we can guarantee free, open access to our premises, digital fabrication tools and mediation.
We invite you to contact us to find out about all the possibilities. We firmly believe that the future of digital manufacturing lies in the establishment of many Fab Labs, and it's thanks to everyone's involvement that Fab Labs will demonstrate their potential for technological, economic and social innovation.

By donating money

You can financially support echoFab or some of its activities. We can recognize your donations by issuing charitable receipts.

By becoming a volunteer

By taking part in the lab's activities, you give us a huge helping hand. It's thanks to the participation of enthusiasts that we've been able to build machines bought in kit form, that we've been able to organize our space and that we're able to chat with you. By taking part in the day-to-day life of the lab and discussing digital fabrication with your friends and family, you're spreading the word about the lab and helping it to take off.

The Fab Lab charter

Answers to your most frequently asked questions about Fab Labs

General

What is a Fab Lab?
Fab Labs are a worldwide network of local labs that stimulate inventiveness by providing access to digital manufacturing tools.

What can you find in a Fab Lab?
Fab Labs share an evolving catalog of core capabilities for making (almost) any object, enabling people and projects to be shared.

What does the Fab Lab network provide?
Operational, educational, technical, financial and logistical assistance beyond what is available in a single lab.

Who can use a Fab Lab?
Fab Labs are available as a community resource, offering free access to individuals as well as subscription-based access to specific programs.

Who owns the inventions made in a Fab Lab?
Designs and processes developed in Fab Labs can be protected and sold as their inventor wishes, but must remain available so that individuals can use and learn from them.

Responsibilities

What are your responsibilities?
Safety: do not injure anyone or damage the equipment
How it works: helps clean, maintain and improve the Lab
Knowledge: contribute to the documentation and knowledge of others

Company

How can companies use a Fab Lab?
Commercial activities can be prototyped and incubated in a Fab Lab, but they must not conflict with other uses, they must grow beyond the Lab rather than within it, and they are expected to benefit their inventors, the Labs, and the networks that have contributed to their success.