09-05-2017, 06:37 PM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2010
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How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
The main THS book twice lists the raw materials required for 3D printing: “liquid plastic, conductive and resistive ceramics, metal powders, powder-epoxy composites, or self-assembling nanostructures” (p. 70) or in a slight variation “self-assembling smart ink, liquid plastic, carbon nanotubes, metallic powders, and so on" (p. 153). How hard are these to acquire? For the most part, THS seems to assume that if some asteroid homesteaders or a terrorist organization gets their hands on a 3D printer and the plans for what they want to build, they can build it. Biological items are mentioned as an important exception, and obviously 3D printers can't synthesize elements (for e.g. building a nuclear weapon). But other than that, is acquiring smart ink, nanotubes, "self-assembling nanostructures" and so on a challenge for users of 3D printers? Or are they easy to synthesize as long as you have a feed stock of the necessary elements?
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09-05-2017, 06:54 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
Neither one? THS doesn't go into detail that I know of, but it probably requires fairly extensive infrastructure to produce those materials -- but they're also legal bulk commodities, so not hard to buy in most places.
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09-05-2017, 07:01 PM | #3 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
I'd guess at default that they're as easy to acquire as bread. While possible to make from scratch using one's own field of wheat, it's almost always more hassle that it's worth.
Out of the way colonies just get occasional shipments and ration what they have rather than going 100% never need contact with any other industrial scale group ever again. That's certainly adjustable for setting preferences.
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09-05-2017, 08:05 PM | #4 | ||
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
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09-06-2017, 01:20 AM | #5 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
IIRC Deep Beyond mentions some miners being self-sufficient with the aid of a printer, which implies that on-site production is quite doable? So perhaps the systems required for producing feedstock for printers are within an order of magnitude of the printers themselves? Been a while since I read DB.
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09-06-2017, 03:06 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
A lot of it might be in reach of a robofac, but it's not garage stuff.
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09-06-2017, 04:11 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
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09-06-2017, 04:58 AM | #8 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
My point was 'yes, extra expensive, but not prohibitively so, and not bad enough to prevent space colonies by stubborn survivalists (of which there are plenty)'.
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09-06-2017, 07:26 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
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Also, one day, the fiddly issue of the level of resolution of standard 3D printers at any given TL will have to be put on the table.
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09-06-2017, 07:35 AM | #10 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: How hard is it to acquire raw materials for 3D printing?
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Well, THS printers seem to be good enough to print computers of its era, which means that the resolution level so good that it isn't gonna limit people in most circumstances (TS69). |
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