Accelerating 3D printing for surface wettability research

The wettability of a surface is affected by its physical and chemical properties, but it can be modulated by patterning it. Researchers use many different techniques for surface patterning, each one with different trade-offs in terms of cost, flexibility, convenience and realizable geometries. Very high-resolution 3D printing technologies (such as stereolithography by two-photon absorption) have the potential to greatly increase the range of realizable surface geometries, but they are currently not in wide use because they are too slow for printing the relative large surface areas required for wetting experiments. To enable the use of these 3D techniques, we are developing new slicing algorithms able to speed up 3D-printing technologies.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Impact of 3D Printing on Trade and FDI

This paper analyzes the effects of 3D printing technologies on the volume of trade and on the structure of FDI. A standard model with firm-specific heterogeneity generates three main predictions. First, 3D printers are introduced in areas with high economic activity that also face high transport costs. Second, technological progress related to 3D printing machines leads to a gradual replacement of FDI that relies on traditional production structures with FDI based on 3D printing techniques. At this stage international trade stays unaffected. Finally, at later stages, with 3D printing machines being widely used, further technological progress in 3D printing leads to a gradual replacement of international trade. Empirical evidence indicates that countries subject to higher transport costs and with high levels of economic activity are indeed among the ones that import more 3D printers. Anecdotal evidence also supports the second and third predictions of the model

A method to assess the application of additive manufacturing to inventory replenishment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Supply Chain Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Companies have historically struggled to deal with their stock, especially the long inventory tail. As most of the inventory management techniques that deal with slow-moving stock have proved to be rather inefficient, this research investigates the use of additive manufacturing to 3D print items on demand and therefore mitigate the inventory carrying and associated costs. This research has been applied to a Hydraulic Equipment Business in New Zealand, which was tested through an inequation that models the traditional manufacturing and 3D printing costs, yielding the ‘tipping point’ for the use of the 3D printing technology. Even though the results obtained herein were negative for this particular case regarding the use of additive manufacturing, this research has developed a methodology to assess the trade-off between traditional manufacturing and 3D printing and also provides insights into the characteristics of the inventory of the businesses that are most likely to benefit from the use of the technology

RECYCLING, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF POLLUTION: THE EFFECT OF INCREASED U.S. PAPER RECYCLING ON U.S. IMPORT DEMAND FOR CANADIAN PAPER

The quantity of paper recycled in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1985. International trade theory predicts that this will lead to reduced imports of paper, and a shift in domestic production toward waste paper intensive outputs (e.g., newsprint) and away from higher grade products such as printing/writing paper. Import demand elasticities with respect to input prices were estimated for newsprint, printing/writing, and all paper utilizing 20 years of monthly data. The empirical results confirm the predictions of theory, and illustrate a channel through which recycling may be more beneficial for U.S. industry than the domestic environment.Import demand, Paper industry, Pollution, Recycling, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Chinese market for American foodstuffs

US Government Printing Office Trade information bulletin, no. 277, 24 pages, including tableshttps://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/moore/1009/thumbnail.jp

Women at the Crossroads, Women at the Forefront, American Women in Letterpress Printing In the Nineteenth Century

The significant role of the female printer in the American home-based print shops during the colonial and early republic periods has been documented in print history, socioeconomic, labor, and women studies, yet with the industrialization of the printing trade, women’s presence is thought to have disappeared. Contrary to the belief that industrialization of the print shop eradicated women’s involvement in skilled employments such as typesetting, the creation of the Women’s Cooperative Printing Union in California and the creation and chartering of the Women’s Typographical Union in New York, both in the late 1860s, clearly indicate that women continued to work in printing. The assumption that industrialization brought with it the unionization of the trade denies the possibility of non-union shops, as well as the continuation of home-based businesses across the ever-expanding nation as it moved westward. This research has sought to uncover and restore to history women who have been involved in the trade from the early transition of the home shop at the beginning of the 1800s to the signing of the WTU charter in 1869 by union employed compositors, as well as to identify establishments that hired female compositors. Digital newspaper databases have been used as a means of locating both women and opportunities available to them in the American printing trade between 1800 to 1869. Several women significant to this history, both those who have been found to be employed as compositors/typesetters and those who created opportunities for the employment of trained women compositors/typesetters, are discussed

To be or not to be? Risk attitudes and gender differences in union membership

Attracting membership while stifling freeriding and heterogeneous preferences among potential members is critical for trade union success. Women are generally seen as less inclined to join trade unions, particularly at the onset of the labor movement. We highlight a previously neglected explanation for this: the importance of risk and gender differences in assessment hereof. We study matched employer-employee data from two industries around the year 1900 where union membership was associated with different levels of risk: the Swedish cigar and printing industries. We find that the gender gap in membership was larger in the high-risk environment (cigar) and smaller in the low-risk environment (printing). Women were not hard to organize but avoided risks and uncertain returns

Pattern Research Project: An Investigation of The Pattern And Printing Process - Family Tradition

2018 Pattern Research Project Kyra Gilchrist – Family Tradition The Pattern Research Project involves research and analysis of contemporary patterns found in the textiles and wallcoverings of the built interior environment. Patterns use motif, repetition, color, geometry, craft, technology, and space to communicate place, time, and concept. Through this research and analysis, built environments - their designers, occupants, construction, and context - can be better understood. Kyra Gilchrist, VCU Interior Design BFA 2021, selected the Family Tradition pattern for the 2018 Pattern Research Project. The text below is excerpted from the student’s work: “Anything can be considered damask as long as it has the general characteristics of the layout. Damask is mainly made from silk, although cotton, linen, wool, and synthetic fibers are also used. The colors used to create the pattern doesn’t have to be monochromatic at all, which makes picking a bold color to separate the foreground and background easier and more unique. It can be recreated digitally, simply for surface design, and handmade by using different techniques such as screen printing or even drawing and printing an image on a surface. The practice of weaving damask patterns developed in countries as a result of trade, colonizing, and mixing of culture. Damask weaving dates back to the 4thand 3rdcenturies.”https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/prp/1019/thumbnail.jp

An Investigation of Production Control Systems and Methods Used in Selected Small Commercial Printing Plants

The subject of production control systems in small commercial printing plants is a fascinating one to this author. It involves employment of every management technique that has been devised by manufacturing production engineers. Commercial printing activities are defined as all these printing plants producing a printed product on a jobbing bagels. Further clarification of printing industry activities is the separation of printing and publishing activities; publishing being limited to the printing of newspapers, magazines, books and miscellaneous items of like nature. Jobbing shops are those whose operations are usually of a non- repressive nature, becomes the output is not produced in quantity. The main reason for undertaking this study of production control systems of small commercial printing plant is that no formal books have been written on this subject and what information there is available to printers is generally published in printing trade periodical by personal contacts. One reason for undertaking this study was to determine the principles of production control as it should be applied to printing plants, with particular emphasis on those shops considered in the small category with 20 or fewer shop employees