On 3D printers in Ship Lockers

[Greylond]

Other than the TL this isn't much different than a Real Life ship's machine shop. Pretty much every ship in the US Navy has a machine shop with various types and sizes of metal blanks and can fabricate small parts. Also, on bigger ships the electronic repair shops have materials and qualified techs to literally build simple single or dual layer circuit boards from scratch. 3D printers just make the fabrication shops smaller and more capable.

I'd say that what can be built by what's in a Ship's Locker would depend on the size of the ship and the Locker.

 

[F33D]

There were other things/materials that just weren't replicated. When they were doing the Voyager series they used a bio-synthetic CPU-type core for a lot of systems. They were also not able to be replicated.

That's along the lines of the positronic brain. But, nothing else I can name was mentioned.

 

[Guardnacho]

I say let the PCs have one. Just so this can happen:

Cap "Engineering, how much longer on that repair?"

Eng "Well Cap..."

Cap "You said it was just a simple coolant leak."

Eng "A simple coolant leak to the power-plant."

Cap "So?"

Eng "No Power, no Insta-fab. No Insta-fab, no tubing. No tubing, no coolant. No coolant, no power."

Have fun,

 

[mr31337]

IMU I'm thinking of selling by digital download in 'one off runs' almost any item or part to be manufactured by 3d printer, probably need an Imperial credit card. In other words players can in many parts of space purchase the blueprint (an executable that will run only once or something, copy protected etc) which they then use to make that item on their 3d printer. Basic tools like wrench & knife and antique weapons would probably be public domain. Gunsmithing & fitting of complex parts not included, obviously. Factor in tranmission time (send & recieve), assembly time. The cost should be proportionally less than buying the actual item in person. I'm also thinking of limiting the size of items produced in this way to say perhaps 1m cubed.

 

[Dave Chase]

Slightly off subject but

Here in the United States, there is a Congress member that is going to propose a ban on 3D printing weapons parts.

Slightly on subject,

Would some worlds (governments) ban the use of a 3D printer in their area of control?

Would there be an extra tax for such a device?

Why would they, well to protect local manufacturers and those big monies that pay them (I mean donate to their campaign fund).

Just an interesting thought of possbilities of What IF in the future.

Dave Chase

 

[Greylond]

Would some worlds (governments) ban the use of a 3D printer in their area of control?

Would there be an extra tax for such a device?

Why would they, well to protect local manufacturers and those big monies that pay them (I mean donate to their campaign fund).

Yes, I can see that. Just like Medieval Guilds pressuring Rulers to require tradesmen to register at whichever Guild existed for their trade, which pretty much was in order to restrict who could enter into a profession and protect the local tradesmen from newcomers who would show up and try to under sale them.

 

[mr31337]

Here in the United States, there is a Congress member that is going to propose a ban on 3D printing weapons parts.

Would some worlds (governments) ban the use of a 3D printer in their area of control?

Would there be an extra tax for such a device?

I believe the instructions for the fully legal process for the manufacture of a firearm that has no serial numbers or requirement to be registered can be found on the ATF's website. Typically, individuals will use a drill press to 'machine' the receiver (the part considered to be the actual firearm) and then buy the remaining parts. I didn't know people were doing this with 3d printers. I would imagine the number of home manufactured weapons produced in this manner must be a very small proportion.

I think it would be far easier to ban specific items rather than the actual 3d printer as it is such a diverse and useful tool. Regarding tax, I think it's a certainty.

 

[mr31337]

Just seen this video...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185

 

[DickTurpin]

At the moment 3D printing is limited to plastic prototypes and the like, even the recently produced 3D printed gun that s in the news is not really very effective or useful. But recent advances in true molecular printing are showing a great deal of promise. The following link allows a glimpse of what is coming soon . . . http://www.geekosystem.com/3d-printing-laser/

 

[mr31337]

That's incredible, the possibilities seem almost endless, maybe I can introduce some of that into my campaign.

 

[Dave Chase]

Actually 3D printing is not limited to plastics. You need to do more research than what you read in the media.

Concrete, chocolate, metal, rubber just to name a few.

Plastic (and similar) is just the easiest, less expensive (for now) and most available printers, with extruding being the most common.

Dave Chase

 

[CosmicGamer]

Concrete, chocolate, metal, rubber just to name a few.

Pig cells.
They are working on bioprinters.

 

[phavoc]

I'd think equipment at that TL would be able to sequence just about anything available - with the right raw materials. There still may be other processes that are more effecient to do using regular manufacturing methods.

Carrying all of the RIGHT materials, however, is going to be the kicker. Simple plastics should be able to be melted down and re-extruded to your hearts content. Building a micro-circuit board might be impossible because you are missing X or Y ingredients. And other things, like say collapsed matter hull plating might be impossible with any sort of shipboard device. Things like that might take industrial-sized printers, or even special processing.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I'd think equipment at that TL would be able to sequence just about anything available - with the right raw materials. There still may be other processes that are more effecient to do using regular manufacturing methods.

Carrying all of the RIGHT materials, however, is going to be the kicker. Simple plastics should be able to be melted down and re-extruded to your hearts content. Building a micro-circuit board might be impossible because you are missing X or Y ingredients. And other things, like say collapsed matter hull plating might be impossible with any sort of shipboard device. Things like that might take industrial-sized printers, or even special processing.

Definitely. I would add foodstuffs to the reconstitutable stuff; micro-circuit boards might actually be doable depending on what you're recycling to build it though.

 

[locarno24]

You'd probably find circuit boards are more easily replicated by 'generic' boards. Integrated circuits with programmable internal configurations exist and are cheap enough even today - hell, my GCSE project many, many years ago was built around them.

Fast-forward to TL12 and you can probably have a credit-card sized 'board' with standard connectors round the rim that can be programmed to duplicate any PCB you can find on the ship. Make them programmable from an internally powered hand tool (not drawing up the circuit, just pulling off the serial number of the blown board and setting the card to a predefined configuration) and it doesn't even matter if the main computer's dead.

They might not be used as standard issue (because a 'proper' board will probably last longer as there's less to go wrong) but standardising electronics spares would make things a hell of a lot easier.

 

[Dave Chase]

You'd probably find circuit boards are more easily replicated by 'generic' boards. Integrated circuits with programmable internal configurations exist and are cheap enough even today - hell, my GCSE project many, many years ago was built around them.

Fast-forward to TL12 and you can probably have a credit-card sized 'board' with standard connectors round the rim that can be programmed to duplicate any PCB you can find on the ship.

...

Sounds a lot like hobby robotic boards of today.

http://www.parallax.com/

Dave Chase

 

[F33D]

Fast-forward to TL12 and you can probably have a credit-card sized 'board' with standard connectors round the rim that can be programmed to duplicate any PCB you can find on the ship. Make them programmable from an internally powered hand tool (not drawing up the circuit, just pulling off the serial number of the blown board and setting the card to a predefined configuration) and it doesn't even matter if the main computer's dead.

They might not be used as standard issue (because a 'proper' board will probably last longer as there's less to go wrong) but standardising electronics spares would make things a hell of a lot easier.

You need to pen a "How Does it Work?" Trav Supplement.

Good ideas

 

[locarno24]

Thing is, most of this sort of thing exists, to a greater or lesser extent, with current ships and aircraft.

You'll always, always still have a basic workshop - i.e. drill, tap, files, etc - because you can't rely on your CAD/CAM machine - as suggested, above, what happens if either it or the power supply are what's broken? Under normal circumstances, however, everything can get simpler and easier.

Most (seagoing) ships carry a small workshop and ingots as well as a (small) stock of prefabricated common items. The more efficient the fabricators, the less 'on-spec' stock material you need. The more complex a system, the less predictable your needs, so the less useful rooms of spares are, anyway.

Adaptible component spares are something manufacturers like - because a manufacturer likes you replacing a plug and play module and will make it as easy as possible for you to do just that (think USB, self-loading drivers, etc, today) and/or make the turnaround time at his service facilities as fast as possible. He doesn't like you being able to fix damaged components because he doesn't get money from that. He may repair the component he pulled and put it back into stock, but he'll do that in his own time when you're not there tapping your feet with a busted ship/car. This is, for example, why the concept of a 'panel beater' has almost disappeared today in car service shops.

Test sets are the same. Even if the entire thing isn't common some have adaptor kits to fit any system they might need to interact with. Something the size of a mobile phone today has significantly more processing power than the entire US Air Force Maintenance Command at the height of the Cold War. Go to TL12, and imagine how much information you can have in even an 'inert' component - essentially disposable swipecards for buildings or tags for products in shops now often use an RFID chip - if engineering components include these you can pull off their maintenance history with a self-powered handset even if there's no power to that compartment.

Not to mention a hand computer with Expert Engineer; large friendly letters saying "Keep Calm And Hit The Master Reset Switch" can turn anyone into a passable technician. At least outside an emergency...

 

[DickTurpin]

Most (seagoing) ships carry a small workshop and ingots as well as a (small) stock of prefabricated common items. The more efficient the fabricators, the less 'on-spec' stock material you need. The more complex a system, the less predictable your needs, so the less useful rooms of spares are, anyway.

This is a good explanation of the Traveller version of spare parts used to make ship repairs. I have always wondered what kind of "Spare Parts" could be used to fix hull plates, jump drives, weapon turrets or sensors equally well. I have speculated that maybe they are just a large roll of duct tape. A workshop that makes whatever is needed from feed stock makes a lot more sense.

 

[F33D]

This is a good explanation of the Traveller version of spare parts used to make ship repairs. I have always wondered what kind of "Spare Parts" could be used to fix hull plates, jump drives, weapon turrets or sensors equally well.

The rules don't state that only one kind a spare part is carried...