Here's an industrial scale version already in use in China.[1] This process is called filament winding. The MIT group is just doing it with a slightly different mechanism than usual.
There is an increase in the ratio of work performed in the digital domain, rather than through physical processing, often making things more efficient, easier or cheaper.
Like with the transition from an analog printing process (including shooting, developing etc photos) to the digital one.
Yes I understand. But take my CNC example, you design on a computer, a computer cuts out the pieces. If it's mass production, a robot could put the pieces together. This doesn't digitise anymore of the process.
I can understand the use of 'digital' to refer to a novel use of computing, such as your digital photography example. But that's a transitory use, digital photography is now just photography. But again though this doesn't seem to go any further than a CNC or 3d printer.
So I'm here confused as to why they've used that word, because it doesn't seem to add anything, which suggests it was probably the wrong word (or I'm misunderstanding something).
More generally, it is quite difficult (out of chemistry at least) to maintain names that describe things to the point that you can “reason” about the chosen symbol. The space is too crowded, etimologies lose their stronghold on meaning when context is added to words, etc. One person chooses with more or less foresight the name of something, and from then on it is just inertia, fashion, and meme evolution that drive names. It is better to not think a lot about why the name of X is Y, out of curiosity, lest you end up frustrated with how random it is.
Digital fabrication/manufacturing is a collective term used for any kind of process where the digital model is transformed into a physical piece with minimal human intervention.
Digital model -> (digital fabrication) -> fabricated object.
Examples are CNC mills, lasercutting, waterjet, FDM/SLS/SLA 3d-printing, plasmacutter, CNC sheet bending machines, etc. The article uses the term to indicate that it belongs in this category of manufacturing technology. Not that it is any more digital than the rest of them.
[1] https://www.frpmachine.com/frpmachine/vertical-frp-tank-wind...