Boy suggesting cursed ideas like these is exactly the reason why I'm a fan of the "Either remove every role in research and replace it with Research Director and Scientist" or let the variety of roles remain but let people understand that their access is restricted even if your character has knowledge about another department or field of research.
I don't have anything against printing shit from the protolathe, it's something that has to be done often but you shouldn't be surprised when sec arrests you for it and you at the end get the 10 minute baby jail time. And believe me, Robotics can already turn into a stale mess when RnD isn't doing their job but imagine RnD doing their job but you being unable to do anything because they either refuse to let you access the protolathe for the stuff you need to save the same IPC who has been throwing himself as carps for 50 minutes straight or which can also happen hopefully not as commonly however, RnD refusing to give you any materials.
Down right restricting access to the Protolathe isn't a good solution at all and I would rather go in and suggest a shared protolathe so I don't have to bolt open the RnD door and use some like akin to "It broke".