Freeform’s backers are focused on the industrial realm rather than home-based production. “The main thing they will be able to do is get the price of this down to where it’s more like automotive manufacturing costs instead of aerospace costs,” says Tom Mueller, who led SpaceX’s engine development for many years and is an angel investor in Freeform. “They also just get the printing speed up by a huge amount.” A layer of metal powder being fused. Photographer: Spencer Lowell for Bloomberg Businessweek 3D printers create objects from a range of materials, including plastics and metal. Freeform specializes in the latter, using a well-known approach where a laser fires onto a bed of metal powder to fuse it into specific shapes. A new layer of powder is then applied, and the laser fires again, and again. A typical 3D printer today might have two to four lasers and concentrate them on a single metal plate where it builds objects. The lasers hit the metal powder, then cease firing while a new layer of metal powder is placed on the plate before firing again. A limiting factor is the rate at which metal and plastic melt and fuse. Typically, the printer has to take breaks because it also gets too hot. Companies consider it a success if a 3D printer is operating 60% of the time. Lead electrical engineer Dennis Ren manages cables connected to the lasers on top of a 3D printer. Photographer: Spencer Lowell for Bloomberg Businessweek Freeform looks to significantly reduce downtime. It has two parallel conveyor systems lined up with multiple metal plates traveling along them. Its 18 lasers fire nonstop while conveyors move plates in and out of the beams. Tasks like applying fresh metal powder to a plate or polishing the edges of a part take place in other areas of the machine, leaving the lasers to continue doing their work on other objects. A combination of cameras snap images at more than 70,000 frames per second, feeding the data into computer vision algorithms that orchestrate how the lasers fire. Where a standard machine can fuse about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of metal powder an hour, Palitsch says Freeform does five kilograms an hour now and will do even more soon with new versions of its technology. While the extra speed and lower price are bonuses, the real value of Freeform’s system is how it monitors objects during the printing process, according to Nick Doucette, chief operations officer at rocket engine maker Ursa Major Technologies, which has tested Freeform’s technology. 3D-printed parts can have flaws, and customers tend to use antiquated, manual practices to check how strong and solid the final objects are. Freeform uses its host of sensors, scanners and artificial intelligence software to assess quality and can make adjustments while something is being built. “The usual way we do this is a nightmare of testing samples and tweaking things,” says Doucette. “Freeform just prints something and gives it to me.”
Can we keep GBA a family friendly thread here? Quite the misogynistic post on your part Stoney. Did you see RH? Plus several other stocks down in light trading in the after hours yesterday. Note my post coincided with the big drop. I said "go to cash for now" and WS listened. ANOTHER AMAZING VZ CALL! Don't worry Stoney, I'll say when it's time to load back up on stocks, you've got enough on your hands with this RAIN stock. VZ will be watching. I might even do some DD on it this weekend as I mentioned the other day. You better be right... the children are sending me emails asking if they should get out ALREADY. *note to readers... I have NOT given my blessing to this stock yet. I said I'd look into it.
Bye Bye balloon!!! This has got me thinking. This is not the first time.. there have been about seven of these balloons spotted... and we are now at the point where we can recapture falling rocket ships... but cannot capture this balloon better... A missal? That seems like overkill... why not pierce the balloon with a machine gun and then capture the whole affair in a net?
Elon Musk says to attempt Starship launch in March Sat, February 4, 2023, 6:16 PM EST Feb 4 (Reuters) - SpaceX may attempt a Starship rocket system launch in March, its billionaire chief Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. "If remaining tests go well, we will attempt a Starship launch next month," Musk said, in a response to a user's tweet about Starship. Musk had in January said that there was a "real shot" at launching Starship in late February, adding that a March launch attempt appears highly likely. SpaceX, since last year, has been looking to launch its giant Starship into orbit for the first time, a pivotal demonstration flight as it aims to fly NASA astronauts to the moon.
According to a new study from the Anderson Economic Group, rising electricity prices — combined with softer gas prices — made EVs more expensive to fuel than gas-powered cars at the end of 2022. “In Q4 2022, typical mid-priced ICE car drivers paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving,” the study says. “That cost was around $0.31 cheaper than the amount paid by mid-priced EV drivers charging mostly at home, and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable EV drivers charging commercially.” Of course, that doesn’t exactly mean gas-powered cars are cheap to run. The national average price for mid-grade gas in the U.S. is still close to $4 a gallon according to motoring and leisure travel giant AAA.
S&P Futures4,136.48 <-------------- How does he do IT!!! -43.28 -1.04% Nasdaq Futures12,573.36 -229.78 -1.79%
As we cross the 216,000 listener mark we have to ask ourselves--- wasn't Radio Savant supposed to end at the end of 2022? As long as I am on fire like this I'll keep it going. But really so much work, I have to ask myself if i could be more productive. Stock picking & market timing is a game of streaks.