Shared componenting

Shared componenting is having all devices and machines using the same components, for example, uniform sizes of nuts, bolts, gears, ball bearings, etc. This minimizes tooling and labor costs to produce the parts, often at the cost of lower precision and/or greater use of raw materials in the resulting machine. Since raw materials such as iron are abundant, the second disadvantage is generally not an important concern. Because of the strong economic incentives to make things on Mars instead of importing them, lower precision will usually be a good tradeoff to bring lower labor and tooling costs for Martian manufacture. To minimize labor, the resulting devices should be easy to assemble. Thus the set may come to resemble a larger-scale and professional version of sophisticated toy construction sets such as Meccano or Erector, and most parts in most machines and structures used on Mars will come from this set.

Although an ideal situation, it is unfortunately likely that due to the differences in origin of the equipment in different settlements, and legacy manufacturing from Earth, the actual components will in fact be different. So Martian settlements may have to deal with increased complexity, as a small community that must deals with a multitude of component standards. In such a case, manufacturing flexibility would be prioritized, with the capacity to produce small runs of components emphasized. Mars will be a tiny market compared to Earth. It is unlikely that this small market can demand its own specifications from Earth manufacturers.

Metals

• Ore is mined, processed and smelted. Then, the raw metal is shaped into "starter shapes", rods, sheets, wire. Then, automated machines cut and shape the metal into the components. The components can then be assembled into the machine or device needed.
• There are a number of standards (ISO, ASTM, ASME, etc.) covering standard materials and standard extrusion shapes, plate thicknesses, piping and structural elements.
• Metal 3D printers can be used for many parts. However, traditional machining is both cheaper and faster in most instances. The fabrication precision is also limited compared to machining, but fairly similar to casting.

Plastics

Standard Plastic parts can molded far more quickly than custom parts can be made with a 3D Printer. Various machines might be constructed to create plastic fibers, film, etc. Bioplastics might be used, although plastics can be synthesized from methane feedstock.

Electronics

Electronics change rapidly and many elements are produced in large fabs that cannot be replicated on Mars due to the small size of the market. Attempt at componenting on Earth have eventually failed due to rapid obsolescence (see the history of the S-100 bus). However, the pressures in certain markets to produce devices that can be repaired, for example the reparability index in France, would be beneficial for Mars as repairing should usually be much cheaper than replacing.