Hasta La Ideas

I was an ID student in the early ’90s when our Production Methods professor told us about this magic machine being developed for the U.S. Navy. Navy ships, he explained, had to carry a huge amount of spare parts. “The goal is for every ship to be self-sustaining,” confirmed my buddy Mike Cinquino, a former Petty Officer 3rd Class on the supply ship U.S.S. Detroit. “The idea is that you can take a missile hit and fix the damage with what’s on hand.” So each ship has storerooms full of thousands of metal nuts, bolts and pieces in different shapes and sizes, which is necessary—and wasteful. But the magic machine my professor talked about was some sort of newfangled 3D printer sitting next to a hopper full of metal powder; a technician would punch in a part number, dump a predetermined amount of powder in, and the machine would spit the part out. No more shelves lined with parts you’ll never need.

Nowadays, of course, Rapid Prototyping machines are a reality. I never learned if the laser sintering machine my professor described became standard Navy issue, but now researchers at the UK’s University of Southampton in conjunction with RP firm 3T RPD have adapted laser sintering technology to another military application: producing aircraft.

With its entire structure, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches all having been printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, through a successive layering technique, the SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane has been designed to function as an unmanned air vehicle (UAV).

…This 3D printed plane was put together without using any fasteners, with all equipment being attached using ‘snap fit’ techniques. Implementing this technique makes it possible to assemble the entire aircraft in minutes without using any tools.

With a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, this electric-powered aircraft has a 2-metres wingspan, is equipped with an autopilot, and in cruise-mode, is said to be almost silent.

Learn more about the SULSA project here.

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Here we go, folks: As reported in Plastics News, researchers have developed skin-mounted electronics and published their findings last week in an issue of the Science journal. What the team of research engineers (from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led by engineering prof John Rogers) have physically achieved is functional circuits embedded in a thin polymer substrate which can then be moistened and adhered to your skin. I suppose you could also lick-it-and-stick-it, like a postage stamp.

These circuit-containing band-aids can support “sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors, wireless antennas, conductive coils and solar cells.” Even more impressive, the substrate they’re mounted in can flex and wrinkle along with your skin, so conceivably even Luke Perry could wear one of these on his forehead.

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Hammarhead and Triple Aught Design build a Triumph-inspired motorcycle for city streets

High-performance apparel and equipment manufacturer Triple Aught Design earlier this month offered up floorspace at their San Francisco headquarters for motorcycle builders Hammarhead Industries to set up temporary shop. The intense three-day bike build—a process involving a few dozen tools and many more sleepless hours—resulted in a beautiful bike that typically would’ve taken three months, the Jack Pine Triumph Scrambler.

“Both inspired by classic design but without being nostalgic,” as TAD founder Patrick Ma describes the bond between the two design-driven companies, they teamed up based on a shared “clean, stripped-down aesthetic of the modern design approach, upgraded with the performance advantages of current technology.” While their compatible values made the project a no-brainer, the build proved to be a different story.

James Hammarhead himself took to the shop armed with an ample supply of cold Pabst to fuel his creative fire. After working tirelessly through all hours of the three days, this California spec Jack Pine motorcycle was born.

With a reworked seat unit and custom pegs to accomodate a passenger, a new “dark matter” black paint job and weighing 45 pounds less than a stock Scrambler, the street-legal bike was designed with the SF streets in mind. A modified exhaust system and shortened rear frame loop adapt the bike to the rigors of city riding (previous builds were geared for Hammarhead’s backwoods Pennsylvania stomping grounds), while remaining true to the iconic bikes of the 1950s.

In the final nod to their deep roots in craftsmanship and hands-on approach to manufacturing, James rode the Jack Pine out of the shop moments after completion, showing both companies’ dedication to making products built for daily use.

Head to Hammarhead Industries for more information on their limited series of production builds and to Triple Aught Design to check out their gear and garments—including their to-be-released locally made Horween leather Streetfighter jacket sported by James (pictured) throughout the build.

BAF Room 65#02, Guiana Space Center, French Guiana, 2007

Growing up a stonesthrow from Johnson Space Center in Houston, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for all things related to the space race. French photographer Vincent Fournier has spent the last decade documenting the fact and fiction of space programs from around the world including Guiana, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Norway and the United States. We love his incredible images capturing the sometimes tenuous relationship between man and machine, built structures and the natural landscape. Check out some of our favorite images and travel with Fournier and VBS.tv (after the jump) to NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the last shuttle launch.

Russian ISS, Star City, Russia, 2007

Baikounur City #2, International School of Space, Kazakhstan, 2011

Insat 4B Satellite, Guiana Space Center, 2007

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As an avid Zipcar user I routinely drive a wide variety of cars, from hybrids to SUVs, all from different manufacturers; it depends on what’s available in the lot when I need to go pick something up. All of the manufacturers have designed the same refueling requirements—pop the lid, unscrew the cap, stick the nozzle in—except for Ford, as they’ve gotten rid of that middle step.

For those of you who’ve never heard of it, a few years ago Ford quietly introduced their Easy Fuel system, which is a minor-sounding but brilliant piece of engineering. Instead of unscrewing a cap, after flipping the fuel door open you simply stick the nozzle through a little spring-loaded gate that automatically seals shut when you’re done. It’s so simple and intelligent that it makes screwing and unscrewing a cap seem silly, and I wonder why the other manufacturers haven’t all followed suit.

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