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descend into the shaft, technicians make sure each printer has updated design iles
for every essential machine part that will go down into the mine. The 3D printer
goes down with other machinery in case a part breaks and needs to be quickly
replaced deep underground.
Today's news update on the mining disaster reports that the portable safety
printer has become an unlikely hero. For several days, the trapped miners have
been conversing with above-ground technicians over a limping wireless connection.
Both teams—one above and one underground—are working together to reine the
printer's design blueprints for the replacement parts.
What should have been a short, standard rescue operation has grown compli-
cated. Just printing a few replacement parts would have been ea sy. The reason
the rescue effort has been delayed is because the design for the broken part keeps
buckling after it's installed because of unexpected high levels of humidity inside
the mine shaft.
The good news is that the situation in the mine looks brighter today. The reporter
explains that the third attempt to print the replacement part passed its stress tests
under simulated conditions at the mining company's headquarters. To d a y the min-
ers will print the updated design underground and, if that works, start rebuilding
their damaged machine tonight.
As you leave your house for work, a crane and a lone construction worker toil
silently on an empty lot across the street. Your neighbor's construction project is
the talk of the neighborhood. A few weeks ago your neighbor knocked down his
old-fashioned wooden house to fabricate a new eco-friendly luxury home.
He waves from the mailbox and shows you the marketing brochure. The new
home is a luxury model from a company called FoamHome and will be completed
in two more weeks. FoamHome's catalog explains that each home's walls are con-
structed with built-in weather sensors. The roof, when it's laid on top at the very
end of the process, will contain solar panels. Walls will be fabricated with electrical
wiring and copper pipes already in place.
Together you and your neighbor watch the construction crane slowly maneuver
a gigantic nozzle over the top of the new foundation. The nozzle simultaneously
scans the landscape and adapts the blueprint, as it squeezes out a paste made of
a blend of cement and some synthetic building materials. The crew member's job
is to make sure no one walks on site during construction. The brains of the outit
is a small computer attached to the construction crane that guides the fabrica-
tion process.
 
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