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Stavropol-based Russian company Smart Build launched an open contest of small architectural forms. The winning project will be brought to life with an in-house developed constructional 3D printer.

Eco-friendly invisible car film is a thermoplastic urethane, often self-healing film that is applied to the painted surfaces of a new or used car to protect the paintwork from stones, scratches, crushed insects, and minor damage. It is able to effectively resist natural oxidation caused by prolonged exposure to atmospheric conditions as well as protect the car from scratches and sand.

Recently, one owner of a BMW 3 Series wanted to apply a protective film onto his car but could not find any suitable product on the market. This prompted him to have the invisible film custom-made.

Film for protecting paintwork is divided into two categories: cut on plotters using PC files prepared in advance and cut by hand. The differences between them are as follows: for computer-cut films, the cutting process precedes gluing and is carried out in accordance with the data of the car prototype, with the fitting process requiring high accuracy; installation of hand-cut film is carried out in reverse order.

The biggest advantage of computer cutting is its safety. The hand-made option inevitably involves cutting over the paintwork and removing parts (for example, logo, door handles). During the process, the paintwork can get scratched, while computer cutting is relatively safe.

In addition, computer-cut films, which are delivered as finished products, can significantly reduce raw material costs and operator skill requirements, thereby increasing operational efficiency.

Despite the obvious advantages of computer-cut films, they often impose extremely high data requirements on prototype vehicles — meeting production needs can only be achieved through the availability of large, constantly updated databases. Thus, such films are not suitable for vehicles with non-standard body kits, discrepancies with the factory version, etc.

The exhibition stand iQB Technologies and TWIZE at the Expo Control 2021 event was a good way to see metrological 3D scanners in action. It was held at the Expocentre in Moscow, Russia. 

American engineer Dan Fritsche has built a fully functional model of a roller coaster (scale 1:35). The project took around 600 hours to design and model (in Fusion 360) and around 800 more to 3D print, and this is without taking post-processing and assembling into account. And here are the results. 

In the beginning of September 2021 Moscow first-graders could visit 17 educational places. Those who participate in the ‘First Grade September’ event will gain knowledge about relevant professions, will visit the programming and 3D modeling courses and will find out more about AR/VR technologies and robotics (you can learn more about educational robotics here).

Today, we will talk about the major trends that have had the most significant impact on the development of robotics as well as dwell upon what has been new in the world of modern robots in recent years.

Popularization of robotics

Nowadays robotics is widely used in manifold industries, its significance is well understood in financial circles, and it is popularized by the media. Efficiency, reliability, low error rates, and high productivity are the hallmarks of today's automation, with modern robotic arms becoming ever more widespread.

Over the past years, special sections on robotics have appeared in major world publications, including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and many others. In addition, many financial institutions and consulting firms such as McKinsey and Deloitte issue ad hoc reports on modern manufacturing technologies, their impact on industry, job creation, and employment in general.

Top Systems participated in both the science-business part and exhibition side of things of the forum. The company presented their PLM-solution for digital transition of enterprises. The T-FLEX PLM (covers (CAD/CAM/CAE/CAPP/PDM/CRM/PM/MDM/RM) is a compelling and relevant solution that can work even with the defense industry. 

Autodesk presented new capabilities of its Fusion 360 software, as well as a whole package of solutions for designers, engineers and manufacturers. The company also how these abilities can be utilized for faster and collaborative production. The improvements allow Autodesk to equip engineers, designers, manufacturers and innovators with modern tools needed for solving current issues. 

Instead of desktop 3D printers, such as Raise3D E2, today we will talk about a metal 3D printer. Chinese company Farsoon offers the FS273M additive manufacturing system that works with laser powders. It’s a modernized version of the FS271M LPBF (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) 3D printer that is offered with one or two lasers.

Link to GitHub. More details about the operation of the algorithm and the module can be found here.

The ACME protocol client is used to automatically obtain a security certificate for your site. Basically everyone uses Let's Encrypt to get a free certificate and auto-renewal. But there are other services, such as Zero SSL. It also supports the ACME protocol.

I relied on two articles from Habr (this and this), as well as RFC8555. But the information in them was not enough to implement their own version of the modulation. At least several times higher than several implementations of the module [at another level]. The tests were conducted on a live service, so there are no autotests yet. You can write and init pull request.

The module is written under Linux. Only the second version of the protocol is considered.

Belgian FGF (Fused Granulate Fabrication) 3D printers manufacturer Colossus and Dutch material supplier colorFabb signed a partnership agreement regarding pushing high-efficient large-format 3D printing with the usage of foam granular polymers (We’ve written about large-format 3D printing before. As an example, read our review of the Modix Big-60 3D printer). 

Andreas Muller, 3D printing enthusiast, developed an open-source project that makes color printing with regular FDM 3D printers possible with the custom system of replaceable printheads and permanent color marker pens. 

German company AIM3D has announced the new generation of the extruders for 3D printing with granules of carbon-fiber and glass fiber polymer composites, as well as composite ceramic- and metal-filled materials.

VIAM (All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials) held the 7th international conference “Additive Technologies: Present and Future” on 7-8th October 2021.

• A short excursion into WeChat;
• About the platform, the version of the application, the utilities used and the decryption of the executable file;
• • About two protocols (old one and new one);
• About serialization of objects;
• Used cryptography and key exchange;
• About headers and hash-functions;
• About the exposures found.

A heart needs to function properly. pumping blood and getting rid of CO2 in that blood. Modern technology provides solutions for the doctors, sometimes with the help of 3D printing. Cardiac phantoms would be one example, since they can be used for mimicking anatomical imaging tasks. 

The use of 3D printing for making cardiac phantoms was recently described in the study called ‘Optimisation of CT protocols for cardiac imaging using three-dimensional printing technology,’ by Kamarul Amin Abdullah of the University of Sydney. 

It covers making a cardiac insert phantom, placing it inside the “Lungman” multi-functional chest phantom and performing a CT scan. The last step covers the use of algorithms for dose optimization. 

Phantoms are the solution to optimize and refine imagery, especially for CT scans. and evaluate the needed dose of radiation. The latter is more important than it sounds, since various studies show that radiation doses from CT scans have been steadily on the rise during recent years in both Australia and the US.

Since the CT scan technology is more widely available today than ever before, the level of radiation exposure continues to be a cause for concern. There are various solutions to reduce cancer risk during exposure, including tube current reduction, low tube voltage, other protocols, ECG-gating and Bismuth shielding, as well as others, including iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms. 

The usage of phantom-based dose optimization methodology proves to be advantageous, especially for imaging of coronary issues, since basing studies only on real patients has its own limits. 

Video is one of the simplest and most attractive formats for information perception. Especially now, in the era of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It is not surprising that marketing specialists often choose video format for business promotion.

The All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) showed its own developments in the field of additive technologies, including a series of small-sized gas-turbine engines MGTD-10, MGTD-20 and MGTD-150. 

Reverse engineering of such parts can be done using 3D scanners. You can see some examples and sample deviations here.

Shayaan is a Bahraini boy who was born without both arms in 2006. His rare disorder is called dysmelia. And now his mother is reaching for modern technologies to help her son perform simple tasks that people without limb differences take for granted.

His mother, Fadia, said in the interview: “On 11th December 2006 I had my second child. My son Shayaan, was born that day bringing with him shock, disbelief and unimaginable pain. He was born with no arms. We were all mourning instead of celebrating the new addition in the family. While the whole family cried, my older son Sheheryar (6 at the time) accepted his younger brother with open arms and an open heart!”

She added: “Sheheryar showed me all the body parts that Shayaan had, rather than focusing on the ones he did not. I then looked at my baby for hours concentrating on his tiny eyelids and ears that showed the most intricate network of capillaries and wondered how the creator could miss making his arms? How could he forget and how could he make a mistake?” 

Chinese company Weistek offers low-price desktop MSLA 3D printers with 2K monochrome screens.