#Benefits of 3D Printing

[theengineeringreporter]

The Advantages Of 3D Printing

3D Over the last few years, technology has made it possible to create almost anything you want. However, it has advanced to the point where it can be used to create almost anything you want.

This article will look at the benefits of Benefits of 3D Printing, how it can be used in your business and where it is going.

What Are the Advantages of 3D Printing?

1. The adaptability of the design and production

A 3D printer is a device that prints out three-dimensional objects. This can be done in a variety of ways. Some use a liquid which hardens upon being printed out, others use powder that can be printed out using a laser, and others use a material which is melted and then printed out. These devices allow you to create a design and then make alterations to the design as necessary.

2. Customized Products - Do You Need Them?

3D If you want to print custom products, you need to ensure that you are able to print them whenever you need them. You should have an adequate supply of materials on hand to print custom products.

3. No Wait Time

3D You can create your own products in a very short time and get them to your customers. It is important because it allows you to get your product into the hands of your customers much faster than if you were making them by hand.

4. Cost Saving

If you can produce your product cheaper than if you did it by hand, you can save money. This means you don't have to spend money on equipment or supplies in order to make your product.

5. Lower risk of loss

With 3D printing, you don't have to worry about anything going wrong. The machine prints the product out for you.

6. Less of an environmental impact

The product is produced by the machine, no waste is created. When you use 3D printing, there is no waste because the machine takes care of everything.

7. Faster Manufacturing

3D printing is a new technology that allows you to make your own product. This means that you can start generating revenue much sooner.

8. The Quickest Delivery

If you want to be able to produce a product quickly, you need to get your printing done as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to wait for your product to be printed before you can deliver it to your customer.

[chimaerakitten]

None of my photos of the real eclipse turned out really well so I’ve decided to fake some. Think anyone will notice?

[canonkiller]

Hey, You been doing okay?

mixed bag but in an optimistic way. finally making some progress w getting assistance from the government + getting fitted (is that the term?) for a walker later this week. also have obtained eye patches which have I think definitely lessened at least some of the lingering eye pain, though vision itself is still pretty rough. so art's still quiet and setting up organization stuff is a bit backseated

but I also dm'd a oneshot that went well and hopefully will be running a second one later this month, and I've been helping friends w their campaigns, and overall I have just been feeling Very Loved, so it's been good :3

[idea-explorer]

House Models Made Easy: Types and Advantages

Learn about house models and why they matter in building and design. This easy-to-understand guide explains various types, from simple scale models to detailed 3D prints, and how each can help you visualize your ideas better. Ideal for architects, builders, and homeowners, this resource offers helpful tips to get you started on creating your own models.

[techtoio]

The Science Behind 3D Printing and Its Innovations

Introduction Alternative term for additive manufacturing: in this process, objects are conceptualized in another manner, changing how the objects are thought of by using 3D printing. One such technology is making creation from prototyping to final products more flexible and efficient. At TechtoIO, we deep dive into the science of 3D printing and the innovations that fuel this groundbreaking technology. Read to continue link

[raogbl]

The introduction of 3D printing technology is also reducing the amount of waste produced during construction. With traditional methods, large amounts of material are wasted due to inaccurate measurements or because the structure needs to be adjusted during the build. 3D printing is more precise, meaning that the exact amount of material needed can be printed, with minimal wastage.

3D printing technology is transforming the construction industry. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we build, allowing for faster construction, greater accuracy, and far lower wastage. This technology has the potential to be a game changer for a sector that is often slow to innovate.

3D Printing Application

3D printing can be used to create molds and forms that can be filled with concrete, creating structures quickly and precisely. It can also be used to print large-scale objects such as walls and roofs, reducing construction time and cost. In addition, 3D printing can be used to create complex shapes, allowing architects to design and build more intricate, imaginative structures.

3D Printing Benefits

The benefits of 3D printing do not end with construction; it is also being used to create furniture, decorations and other fittings for buildings. 3D printing enables on demand production, meaning it is possible to customize items to individual requirements quickly and cost effectively.

Less Logistical Process & Waste

A 3D printer is believed to have the potential to eliminate three major transportation logistics factors. The first problem is that many parts are damaged in transit, which can be solved by printing onsite.

Furthermore, components must be over engineered so that they can survive transportation, increasing their costs. Such over engineering would be eliminated by onsite 3D printing.

Taking care of secure transportation and hoisting requires additions to parts, requiring post assembly work. These features could be eliminated by onsite 3D printing. Additionally, 3D printing allows the raw materials to be directly molded into something, eliminating the need for wooden moulds that are often used in traditional construction.

Read more

[metal3d]

top 3d printing companies - metals manufacturing company

Will you disagree with me if I say that the long-term success of any society is highly dependent on its manufacturing? I hope you will not. Every society needs a very strong and vibrant manufacturing base. There is a well-known saying that 'If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you have always got. This clearly states the significance of development and automation in the manufacturing industry. Additive manufacturing is fundamentally changing what we can do. There are three key elements to effectively utilize the additive manufacturing process. Additive thinking, accessible processes and cost are those elements which provide the most efficient solutions to the hindrances in the additive manufacturing sector. Metal additive manufacturing is the one that requires special mention here. Let us understand the concept, types, and major metal additive manufacturing applications.

What is Metal 3D Printing

Metal 3d printing, also known as metal additive manufacturing is one of g fastest growing technologies in the manufacturing industry. It is the most heavily invested technology in industrial and business applications. Any technology that creates metal objects layer by layer with sintering, melting and welding could be called metal 3D printing. Metal additive manufacturing stands as an umbrella term for several families of AM technologies. The application of metal 3d printing is boundless when manufacturing objects with complicated geometry. 3D printing is highly recommended for intricate parts where other types of manufacturing are inefficient or difficult to use.

Types of Metal 3D Printing

For a better understanding of the types of metal additive manufacturing, one should differentiate between powder-bed welding and deposition processes such as laser deposition welding. In powder bed welding, a slider is used to apply a thin layer of metallic material onto the building platform. Then a laser or electron beam cuts out the desired shape. Then the installation space is lowered a little and the next layer of metal powder is pushed over the object. In this way, the component is created layer by layer. The methods of metal 3d printing are categorised into four namely Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Electron Beam Melting (EBM), Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) and Metal Powder Application (MPA). SLM technology uses a bed of powder with a source of heat to create metal parts and includes Selective Laser Melting (SLS), which is also called Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) or Laser Metal Fusion (LMF). EBM is a type of additive manufacturing where the raw material is placed under a vacuum and fused from heating by an electron beam. LMD is a laser-based DED technique that selectively adds metal material onto a base workpiece in a layer-by-layer process. In powder-based LMD, a nozzle aggregates metal powder onto a workpiece, where a fibre laser melts both the powder and the workpiece into a melt pool. MPA involves blasting a fine metal powder at a target using a custom-designed nozzle.

3D Printing in Automobile Industry

3D printing has greater scope in the automobile industry. Metal additive manufacturing can be used to make moulds and thermoforming tools, and also in manufacturing grips, jigs, and fixtures. This allows automakers to produce samples and tools at low costs and to eliminate future losses in production when investing in high-cost tooling. With 3D printing, automotive designers can quickly fabricate a prototype of a physical part or assembly, from a simple interior element to a dashboard or even a scale model of an entire automobile.

3D Printing in Medical Industry

Medical 3D printing is highly in demand in both clinical and research-based healthcare activities. It involves the creation of physical replicas of anatomical structures using additive manufacturing processes. The application of 3D printing in medicine can provide many benefits like the customization and personalization of medical products, drugs, and equipment; cost-effectiveness; increased productivity; the democratization of design and manufacturing; and enhanced collaboration.

3D Printing in Aerospace Industry

In the Aerospace industry, metal additive manufacturing is used to manufacture metal brackets that perform a structural function inside aircraft. 3D printing services produce interior aircraft components such as cockpit dashboards and door handles. 3D printed prototypes enable designers to refine the form and fit of finished parts. Because component precision is a critical factor in aircraft design, 3D printers are used in the aircraft industry to provide extremely high accuracy in parts and components.

3D Printing in Architecture Industry

3D printing will simplify the process in architecture. It can render highly detailed physical models from a range of materials and colours based on a CAD model. It is an efficient process that lets architects turn out models quickly and more accurately. 3D printing allows architects to design and develop everything ranging from buildings, townships, and cities right down to terrains, landscapes and fauna with fine detail and full colour. Well-designed 3D-printed architectural models can help architects create a lasting impression on their clients.

3D Printing in Defense Industry

The additive manufacturing technique is widely used by the defence sector worldwide. Considering that speed, lighter weights, and lower costs are all paramount in this sector, additive manufacturing certainly has a role to play. 3d printing provides new ways to 3D print replacement parts on demand, whilst reducing production costs and enabling new design engineering possibilities in the defence industry.

3D Printing in Tooling Industry

Tooling is any part manufacturers use to make other parts. 3D printing provides new opportunities for different business sectors to enable easier prototyping. It could directly form the part or like a pattern for a mould that manufacturers would then use to cast a different part. It gives them the ability to create designs that are way too difficult to produce with other methods. It also allows manufacturers to build high-quality products rapidly.

Some new frontiers with 3D printing technology

A new frontier for 3D printing develops state-of-the-art soft materials able to self-heal. The scientific community is focusing its research on the multiple applications of hydrogels, polymeric materials which contain a large amount of water, that have the potential to reproduce the features of biological tissues. Direct Sound Printing is a potential game-changer in 3D Printing. Metal additive manufacturing creates physical objects from a geometrical representation by successive addition of materials. 3D printing technology is a fast-emerging technology nowadays. Apart from Metal 3D Printing, there are new frontiers like 3D Printed Lattice Structures, Bone-Like 3D Printed Structures and more efficient Engines in Drones. 3D printing can help manufacturers save time, material, and costs from traditional tooling processes. As technology in 3D printing has improved, the ability to make larger items as well as more detailed objects has become more commonplace. Ultimately, three-dimensional printing is revolutionizing the production of new devices and structures in a wide range of sectors.

Conclusion

Metal additive manufacturing has recently developed a lot to bring great benefits to different business sectors. These benefits include reduced material use, lowered costs, and production acceleration. It also enables designers and engineers to create anything from jigs and fixtures to more advanced forms like visualisation aids. The possibilities of using 3D printing for product development and manufacturing in different industries are limitless. The days are not far for you to think of outsourcing metal 3d printing for your industry. The countdown begins!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Uplinkchump Linkdump

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

It's Linkdump Saturday! This is the day on which I clear the giant backlog of links from the previous week that I haven't managed to post in my newsletter's "Hey look at this" sections. This is my 19th linkdump; here's the previous 18 dumps:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Let's start with some fun and games. Liam is a high-schooler who created "Bad Plumbing," a Jenga-style boardgame using a variety of 3D printed shapes; the game was a smash hit at his local game-jam, so now he's kickstarting it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/liamclift/bad-plumbing

The shapes are delightful and Seussian, and there's a very ingenious game dynamic that's not just "make the pile bigger." You can pre-order for $30, and for $100, you'll get a version with a custom-designed shape of your specification. I backed!

It's lovely to see something that's both excellent and delightful, but to be honest, the majority of this week's links are excellent and enraging. Most of these links from The American Prospect, which has, under David Dayen's executive leadership, gone from "a magazine I really like" to "the first thing I read every day."

This week saw a the Prospect publish a stunning series of articles on prices, a sacred object for neoliberal economists, who see them as the carriers of the information that allows society to order itself for maximum efficiency and broadest benefit. Unfortunately for these economists, the love-affair with prices is one-sided: they may love prices, but prices hate neoliberalism.

The dogma that says that any government interference in pricing will destroy the economy by "distorting" prices does not survive contact with reality. The instant the government steps away from regulating monopoly, and its handmaiden, fraud, prices go batshit crazy.

This week's Pluralistic newsletters were dominated by this brilliant series in the Prospect. On Wednesday, I wrote about the Prospect's investigations into algorithmic and surveillance pricing:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

And yesterday, it was the epidemic of junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/07/drip-drip-drip/#drip-off

There's more than I could fit into the newsletter, though, like Friday's excellent piece on the scourge of surge pricing by Sarah Jaffe:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-07-urge-to-surge/

Jaffe's piece was especially interesting given economist Ramsi Woodcock's compelling case that surge pricing is a per se violation of antitrust law:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/26/aggregate-demand/#pure-transfer

The Prospect series was so timely. After decades of pricing orthodoxy, economists like Isabella Weber are making huge waves (and attracting a tsunami of abuse). Weber's interview with Vass Bednar on the Globe and Mail's Lately podcast this week is a must-listen:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-the-millennial-economist-who-took-on-the-world/

(Though if you get your econ ideas from the New York Times, you'd miss this whole revolution, as the Grey Lady's views on prices remain mired in the Reagan era:)

https://twitter.com/HalSinger/status/1798849195664916648

Few prices are more important than the price of the roof over your head – after all, "shelter" is only second to "food" in the hierarchy of needs. Dayen's Friday story for the Prospect in NIMBYism gets to the crux of the cost-of-living crisis: people who own houses want houses to be expensive, and will go to enormous lengths to make sure that shelter costs as much as possible:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2024-06-07-homeowners-want-housing-prices-to-go-up/

Dayen attributes this to "the wealth effect" – that is, most people would like to be richer, and the minority of Americans who have a positive net worth owe that status to rising house prices, and the plurality of Americans who have a negative net worth thanks to a mortgage are counting on rising house prices to flip them into the black.

When America threw off the Gilded Age, we charted two courses to prosperity for working people: labor unions and home ownership. The ruling class cannily convinced us to rely solely on the latter. The housing emergency raging across the country is the inevitable result of that decision:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

The Prospect's consistent brilliance isn't merely an editorial matter, of course. The magazine features a recurring cast of some of the best muckraking writers in the field, and the absolute peak of that impressive pile is Maureen Tkacik. Tkacik's work on Boeing is stunning:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa

Her labor coverage is second to none:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

And no one writes better than her about private equity:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

I am in pure awe of Tkacik's prolific and expert work. So when I read her piece on Long Covid in the Prospect this week, I was stunned to learn that she has been severely disabled by this heavily downplayed – but rampant – chronic illness:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-06-06-nih-perpetuating-long-covid-denial/

The fact that Tkacik is doing this career-defining, high-frequency work while being randomly smashed by a series of acute Long Covid incidents makes her achievements nothing sort of heroic. But Tkacik's Long Covid coverage isn't a lament for her personal situation – it's a characteristically brilliant investigative story about the systematic cover-up of Long Covid by the NIH, which has a long history of dismissing inconvenient illnesses as psychosomatic, from black lung to chronic fatigue.

Tkacik's Long Covid coverage adds yet another subject where I'm learning more from the Prospect than from other sources – part of a host of issues where the magazine leads the pack. An issue far more squarely in its wheelhouse is antitrust, especially the intersection of antitrust and labor rights.

This week, I eagerly devoured Luke Goldstein's story about the latest in a series of lies that Amazon executives were caught making to the US government:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-06-06-senators-allege-amazon-lied-delivery-drivers/

You may recall when Jeff Bezos lied to Congress, claiming that the company didn't spy on its sellers and clone their best products:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58961836

Or when Amazon posted a lying rebuttal to a Congressman who objected to its drivers being forced to pee in bottles in order to meet its punishing schedules:

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/our-recent-response-to-representative-pocan

The latest lie: Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy lied to the Senate about the company's relationship to its drivers, whom it insists are "independent contractors" because they are hired through cutouts called "Delivery Service Providers":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

These drivers work for Amazon. It dictates their working conditions. It installs cameras that watch their eyeballs while they drive. It enforces an illegal "no poach" system that fixes their wages. And it lies about all this. To the Senate.

You know what they say, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. Tech barons go through life in a warm bath of their own bullshit, surrounded by lackeys who are contractually prohibited from calling them on it. They forget that there are people out there in the world who won't offer them this deference – including lawmakers and regulators.

That's why Facebook lied to the FCC when they bought Instagram, withholding key information in order to secure regulatory permission for the merger:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-claims-facebook-withheld-information-152834983.html

After decades of inattention, the world's governments have discovered a newfound energy for busting trusts and smashing corporate power. Five years ago, it looked like maybe this was a fixup by Big Cable or Big Content to take Big Tech off the board so they could claim more dominion over our lives:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/why-is-there-so-much-antitrust-energy-for-big-tech-but-not-for-big-telco/

Today, every sector is coming in for antitrust scrutiny, and the tempo is only increasing. Just this week, the FTC and DOJ opened investigations into Microsoft, Openai, and Nvidia:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/6/24172868/ftc-doj-antitrust-openai-microsoft-nvidia-investigations

Yeah, there's still a lot of policy focus on tech, but that's because tech has extended its tendrils into every area of policy. That's the end-point of a decades-long process of tech going from sitting alongside important policy questions to being inseparable from them. I've had a front-row seat for that transformation, through my work with EFF, whose brief just keeps expanding as tech infuses every aspect of our lives and rights.

The latest example; EFF's "Surveillance Defense for Campus Protests" by Rory Mir, Thorin Klosowski and Christian Romero:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/surveillance-defense-campus-protests

The military has gone all-in on electronic surveillance, and campuses have gone all-in on militarized policing, so campuses are now sites of electronic warfare, and protesters are vastly overmatched. This is an excellent and timely guide.

Well, this is where this week's linkdump comes to an end. It only falls to me to send you off with one last week: Libro.fm's buy-one/get-one sale on DRM-free audiobooks, with a share of each sale going to an indie bookstore of your choosing! This is a heckin deal, and a great way to start weaning yourself off of the Audible monopoly (also, my latest novel The Bezzle, is in the sale):

https://libro.fm/bogo

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/08/medley/#the-prospect

Image: Cjp24 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Automobiles_in_a_french_junkyard.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[smellslikebot]

I learned about the Glia Project today and wanted to share-- it's an organization that designs and manufactures open-source, low-cost medical devices for access in impoverished areas (or, in Gaza's case, when blockades make it impossible to simply import these supplies). Its founder is Palestinian-Canadian doctor Tarek Loubani, who designed the 3D printable stethoscope in 2015.

Right now (until Jan. 31, 2024), there's a fundraiser to benefit Glia's staff in Gaza, who have all been displaced by the war. Additional funds would go toward repairing their office in Gaza, which was badly damaged by the Israeli bombing of a nearby hospital:

[apas-95]

Do you believe that there is some hypothetical future tech waiting to be harnessed on a easily replicatible scale that will change modern war fighting on the same scale that automatic firearms or flight did? Do you think it will require another worldwide conflict before it's discovered or are we already on the brink?

oh yeah there's like. a million different things that even in the smaller regional conflicts have made themselves clearly useful, like loitering munitions and squad-scale UAS. slightly more conceptual things like 40mm-launched top-attack missiles and the integration of datalink systems to the individual soldier would be realised within the start of a worldwide conflict, along with (as major powers are preparing for) the integration of the space field through antisatellite strikes etc.

I think the general trend of a future conflict at this point is pretty clear: loitering munitions, unmanned systems, CBRN etc rendering surface battlefields basically unliveable and putting more focus on urban subterranean fighting, and the proliferation of precision-strike munitions and hypersonic missiles making large force concentrations unviable, meaning more dispersed and interlinked forces -- but what comes after that is unclear.

in terms of revolutionary warfare, the urban guerrilla will probably take up a much more central role, and the ease of manufacture for 3d-printed carbines (as demonstrated in myanmar) makes the initial armament of insurgents prior to seizing arms equally practical basically anywhere, and the survivability of modern troops due to better body armour and medical practices would probably benefit guerrilla forces that properly apply them.

hypersonic munutions currently have made literally all surface navies and most military bases completely redundant, with no clear countermeasures yet extant or even really proposed, so we've already passed certain tech thresholds, but certainly a larger conflict would push us through more and more. sadly (not really but yknow) we'll almost certainly never see space combat beyond antisatellite strikes (which currently the west sorta suck at) but it's hard to make any positive claims as to what we will see past the early stages of such a conflict. any viable anti-hypersonic countermeasures would also necessarily be anti-ICBM countermeasures too so who knows

[britcision]

So it’s weird to come back a couple years after you leave a place and see how it’s changed, right?

In my first year of college, a group of friends and I were the first iteration of our college’s Makers Club. The tech teachers helped us get set up, taught us to apply for funding, got us a room for meetings

And, y’know, for most of the year what we in the club had access to was the room, a projector, and the xbox one of the members brought in for our weekly Smash Bros tournament

(Before the xbox came in the Makers Club did vitally important and scientific activities like taping a member to a chair with painter’s tape to see how easily he could break out)

And as we did the budget request, we all made jokes about stupid things we could buy, because we needed to have an itinerary of everything we wanted to submit with the budget, and the teachers advised us to ask at least double what we actually wanted

(So, 10’ diamond coated charger cables, better tape, a 3D printer to print a trophy for the winner of the tournament each week, etc.)

It was basically a lunch club, almost entirely of people from our software development classes, where we all hung out and dicked around

I graduated a couple years later, and the year after that snuck back to the Maker’s Club because we’d finally gotten a 3D printer the year I graduated and I wanted to get a sneaky print cuz we charged for the filament and not much else

And gang

I saw this club when we had A Room

We didn’t even claim it full time for two years there were still other classes in it

I saw it when we had one printer, when the coolest thing we could buy was a programmable robot kit for one of those cute lil guys you can program to move his cube around and we all had to share one

The goddamn budget request must have gone through as we all fucking left, because the next year they had not just the room permanently set aside, but the closet next door set up with TWO 3D printers and a laser cutter

I booped in and out over the next year too, mostly for curiosity (and to use the printers cuz the people now running the club were members when I’d been a founder and so long as none of us admitted I wasn’t paying tuition anymore it was fair game)

The last time I saw it, they had FOUR 3D printers, two laser cutters, three more craft machines I didn’t recognize, a working fume hood, and one guy had used club resources to build a working robot hand and was teaching it to pick locks

It was. It was amazing. It was a proper, actual piece of school infrastructure, providing benefits to the whole student body

And I was there when we just played Smash and helped each other with our homework

[materialsscienceandengineering]

New research on 3D-printed materials toward future generations of stronger, lighter plastics

A new analysis of the deformation mechanisms which cause 3D-printed materials to fail under strain could help create future generations of stronger, lighter plastics, unlocking transformative benefits for industry. Engineers in the UK and Italy are behind the research, which provides unprecedented insight into the delicate balance of structural factors at play in the design and construction of lattice materials—honeycomb-like cellular structures which combine light weight with impressive strength and energy absorption abilities. The team developed a design parameter called the "enhancement factor," which provides a reliable way to predict how new lattice designs can be fine-tuned to minimize structural defects and maximize performance.

Read more.

[eitherlyingorstupid]

Beachcomber/reader, second person pov. Basically, you give Beachy the strap.

You and Beachcomber are… buddies. Friends with benefits, some might say. It's an arrangement that suits both of you, as he's curious about sex with humans, and you're willing to indulge him. This time, though, you've prepared something a little different.

You find Beachcomber in his usual spot, sitting in the middle of a forest glade surrounded by all manner of woodland creatures.

They scatter as you approach with your arms behind your back, watching Beachcomber's visor gleaming with curiosity.

“What have you got there?”

“Just something to spice up our love life.” You bring your arms around to the front and show him the… toy you've been working on for the past few weeks.

Beachcomber gives a contented, close-lipped smile. “So that's what you've been working on,” he says.

The toy you hold is a labor of love, a massive phallus 3D printed with carbon fiber filament and connected to a web of straps. You had to create it in multiple sections, attaching one to the other until you created something large enough for a bot of Beachcomber's size. It's almost the same length and breadth of your thigh, and you hope it's enough.

“Do you like it?”

“I won't know until I try it out,” he says. He shifts position, uncrossing his legs and leaning back on his arms.

You walk closer, wrapping the velcro straps around your hips. The strap feels ridiculously large, but you manage to tighten it to the right fit. You step between his spread legs and rest the toy against his pelvis. "I think it'll fit."

You run your hands over his groin, finding the seams of his valve panel with your tiny, clever human fingers.

Beachcomber's engine rumbles as the panels slide away. "It's been a long time since I've tried something like this," he says.

You press the tip of the strap against his outer node, rubbing it gently in a circular motion. Strangely, it almost feels as if the toy is actually an extension of your body, like a phantom limb.

Beachcomber opens his legs wider, and you hear the gears in his pelvis clicking as he grows tense.

You slide it down to his entrance, already slick with lubricant, and tease just the first few inches. The phantom limb sensation is even stronger, and it feels like you're touching him directly.

He hums in appreciation. "That's good. Come on."

You take a deep breath and push the toy in further, watching his reaction closely. His visor lights up, and his mouth opens slightly, revealing his gleaming teeth. Beachcomber's own spike emerges from its housing, and you place a hand on its warm metal surface.

The toy seems to fit perfectly. You move it in and out, rocking your hips to drive it deeper. His body responds with eager jolts of electricity that you can feel pulsing through your hand.

Beachcomber lays back, stretching his arms over his head, as his engine growls louder. "Mmh… yes," he purrs.

The toy's girth stretches him wide, and you can feel his inner workings adjusting around it.

"Is it okay?" you ask, watching the air above his chest shimmer with vented heat.

"Perfect," Beachcomber murmurs.

You slide your hand up and down his spike, your nails clicking over the edges of the overlapping metal plates.

"You like this?" he asks.

"Yeah. It feels almost like… it's connected to me." You swear you can feel Beachcomber tighten around the toy as you say that. "It's like I really am fucking you."

Beachcomber hums. "Fuck me harder, then," he says. Hips hips move in tandem with yours, pushing forward to meet your thrusts.

You hang onto his spike with both hands, digging your heels in as you push against him. The toy is buried to the hilt, and your clothes are starting to get damp with lubricant.

A small price to pay, you think, as Beachcomber moans softly.

You begin to rock your hips faster, the sound of the toy sliding in and out of him mixing with the whirrs of his vents and groan of machinery.

"Close," he gasps, and you quickly pull away and take a few steps back. You wish you could have kept going until you made him come, but you've learned that's an incredibly bad idea.

Beachcomber's hand replaces the toy, his fingers pushing into his valve with a speed and precision that you couldn't match.

His entire body arches off the ground as he overloads, electricity crackling and snapping in blue arcs across his frame. A few fallen leaves catch fire from the sparks popping and fizzing from him, but they're quickly smothered as Beachcomber's frame falls back down with a thud.

You can't help but admire the raw power of his overload, the way his metal body quivers and shakes with every pulse of pleasure. Just being in the presence of the electrical discharge makes your hair stand on end.

Beachcomber beckons you closer when it's safe to approach again. He strokes your head, purring wordlessly.

"Thank you," he murmurs. His touch is gentle, a stark contrast to the fierce passion from moments ago. "Your creativity never ceases to amaze me."

You lean into his hand, smiling. "It's the least I can do for my favorite giant robot."

[your7oxygen]

3D Printing in Architecture

3D printing, once a novelty in the tech world, has now firmly established itself as a game-changer in various industries, including architecture. The ability to create intricate models, prototypes, and even full-scale structures has opened up new possibilities for architects, engineers, and builders. In this blog post, we'll explore how 3D printing is revolutionizing architecture, from design concepts to construction practices.

Design Innovation

One of the most significant impacts of 3D printing in architecture is the freedom it provides in design. Traditional methods often limit architects to certain shapes and structures due to material and construction constraints. However, with 3D printing, these limitations are lifted. Architects can now experiment with complex geometries and organic forms that were previously impossible or too costly to achieve. This has led to a surge in innovative designs, pushing the boundaries of what architecture can be.

Prototyping and Modeling

Before the advent of 3D printing, creating detailed architectural models was a time-consuming and expensive process. With 3D printing, architects can quickly produce accurate scale models of their designs, allowing for better visualization and refinement. This rapid prototyping capability enables architects to identify potential issues early in the design process, saving time and resources in the long run. Additionally, clients can better understand the architect's vision through tangible models, leading to more effective communication and collaboration.

Sustainability and Efficiency

3D printing also offers significant benefits in terms of sustainability and construction efficiency. Traditional construction methods often generate a considerable amount of waste due to material overuse and mistakes. In contrast, 3D printing uses only the necessary amount of material, significantly reducing waste. Additionally, many 3D printing materials can be recycled or are made from sustainable resources, making this technology more environmentally friendly.

Moreover, 3D printing can streamline the construction process. Structures can be printed on-site, reducing the need for transportation and minimizing the carbon footprint associated with moving materials and equipment. This method also allows for faster construction times, which is particularly beneficial for large-scale projects or emergency housing needs.

Cost-Effective Construction

The cost of building with traditional methods can be prohibitive, especially for complex or custom designs. 3D printing offers a more cost-effective alternative by reducing labor costs and material waste. The precision of 3D printing ensures that only the exact amount of material needed is used, which not only lowers costs but also increases the structural integrity of the building. For developing countries or regions with limited resources, 3D printing presents a viable solution for affordable housing and infrastructure.

Challenges and Future Prospects

While 3D printing in architecture holds great promise, it is not without challenges. The technology is still relatively new, and large-scale 3D printing for buildings requires further development. Issues such as material limitations, regulatory hurdles, and the need for skilled operators must be addressed. However, ongoing research and innovation in the field are likely to overcome these challenges in the coming years.