2018-08-27

Planning & Strategy.

• A very wonky and very bearish analysis of Intel's server business.
• On the unique difficulties in starting businesses with significant scientific risk.

Making & Manufacturing.

• After something like four years sneaking around the metal printing circuit, Velo3D finally announced what they've been working on: A step improvement in laser metal powder bed fusion, with "up to 90%" first article success rates. As it happens, I've seen their systems in operation and they've printed a few of my parts with few to no support structures whatsoever. The whole process is impressive, beginning with their dedicated build prep software (which does melt pool simulations and pre-deforms the part to compensate for thermal stresses), to their zero-contact recoater (the official word on how this works is "magic"), to their 15-minute fully automated changeover time. Oh, and also they can apparently stack parts vertically in the build like it's SLS. Each of these is a pretty big deal for metal printing, and Velo also announced that they've already got three systems out in the wild at customer sites. I'm looking forward to more here...
• BYD announced plans for a large lithium ion battery factory. Once it and another planned facility come online, their total capacity will be about 60 GWh/year. For comparison, CATL had a capacity of about 17 GWh in 2017 (with plans to double that) and Tesla's current capacity is about 20 GWh (with plans to reach 50 GWh).
• Boston Dynamics says that they'll build 1000 SpotMinis by the end of 2019; it's unclear what the robots will do.
• Tailored fiber placement is a process by which functional fibers (carbon, etc) are sewn onto a substrate to be used as preforms for fiber reinforced composites.

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• A Reddit thread apocryphally called "train used to friction weld tracks" with a good discussion on rail grinding in it. See also the Loram page on rail grinding, and this video (apparently shot by a Loram employee).
• ProPublica explains how levees are used in the US and why it makes much more sense to build them farther away from river banks.

Distribution & Logistics.

• "Stacking concrete blocks is a surprisingly efficient way to store energy." Clever; would be interesting to game out the system's lifecycle CO2 output using a variety of dense materials.
• A very good piece on supply chain transparency and why it is so difficult for large organizations to truly understand the working and operating conditions throughout their supply chains. "How do you manage the complexity of a system that procures goods from a huge variety of locations? You make it modular: when you black-box each component, you don’t need to know anything about it except that it meets your specifications. Information about provenance, labor conditions, and environmental impact is unwieldy when the goal of your system is simply to procure and assemble goods quickly."
• Carmera announced a real-time mapping change & event management engine and is sharing data with NYC DOT.

Inspection, Testing & Analysis.

• A really excellent overview of always-on home appliances: "Cable boxes alone account for almost 1.5% of the total residential energy usage in the US." Listen to the whole podcast here - it does a very good job explaining the decisions that result in this level of consumption, and the criticism it lobs towards Comcast et al is measured and totally appropriate.
• A multi-part series (start here) on using unsupervised machine learning (plus a bunch of additional data processing) to automatically detect anomalies in CNC machining.

Tangents.

• Conan O'Brien is kind of obsessed with Robert Caro.
• A pretty charming interview with LeBron James about his love for bikes.

Audi's electric motor assembly process.