3D printing provides millions of stop-motion possibilities

In order to create the critically-acclaimed stop-motion picture Kubo and the Two Strings the creators, Laika Studios, turned to 3D printing. The movie had a budget of almost $60 million and is nominated for a Golden Globe. The project is also the result of a collaboration between the studio and Stratasys to 3D print characters and sets. In a many similar to the recent Sainsbury’s Christmas advert, 3D printing in Kubo and the Two Strings was used in order to create thousands of different expressions on the characters’ faces.
The extraordinary amount of possibilities opened up through 3D printing is evident in the movie’s protagonist Kubo. The figure of Kubo used to create the film is only 9 inches tall yet has 11,007 unique mouth positions, 4,429 brow motions and a total of 23,187 different faces. Combined this makes 48 million different possible expressions. The 3D printer used to create this vast creative palette was the Stratasys Connex3 color multi-material 3D printer. In addition, Laika Studios managed to create their first fully 3D printed puppet, the Moon Beast (pictured below).
bout stop-motion filming
While anyone can film a stop-motion picture, since it simply involves moving an object – or series of objects – frame by frame in order to create the illusion of animation, it is a painstaking process. However, in order to create a Hollywood blockbuster, the technology involved can be rather more involved. 3D printing helped Laika Studios development more efficient workflow as instead of manipulating clay in between shots, as in the traditional process, the studio had an array of detailed parts which could be interchanged accordingly.
Travis Knight, director of Kubo and the Two Strings and president and CEO of Laika Studios, explained the importance of 3D printing to their studio and to the art of storytelling,
Not just for Hollywood
While blockbuster movies and big budget advertisements are using 3D printing to create stop-motion filming, the technology is also available for small-scale productions. Film makers on a budget have the ability to 3D scan objects on a smartphone and print them on a desktop 3D pancake printer. This means even lower budget productions can tap into a wide range of possibilities for their stop-motion filming. Let us know in the comments if you are working on such a project.

Operation Christmas Drop begins at Guam

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) -- Military members from the U.S. Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy, with international support from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force are joining forces to airdrop and deliver donated toys, clothes, food items and other necessities to remote islands across the Pacific Ocean as part of Operation Christmas Drop 2016.

The annual training mission officially kicked off during a ceremony Dec. 6 at Andersen Air Force Base, where military leaders across the island pushed the first pallet display of donated goods into a C-130 Hercules.

“I’m proud that Andersen is hosting Operation Christmas Drop,” said Brig. Gen. Douglas Cox, the 36th Wing commander. “I am happy to welcome our partners from Australia and Japan, it is wonderful to have you with us this holiday season.”

C-130s from the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan; RAAF; and Japan Air Self-Defense Force will be flying over the Pacific to airdrop goods to the islanders. More than 45 airmen are participating from both the RAAF and the JASDF.

Sixty-five years in the running, Christmas Drop is the Defense Department’s longest-running humanitarian airlift operation. The tradition began during the Christmas season in 1952 when a B-29 Superfortress aircrew saw islanders waving at them from the island of Kapingamarangi, 3,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. In the spirit of Christmas the aircrew dropped a bundle of supplies attached to a parachute to the islanders below, giving the operation its name. This year brings together three nations, three corporate sponsors and three U.S. military branches. Today, airdrop operations include more than 50 islands and thousands of people.

“It feels great to give back no matter what background you come from,” said Capt. Aaron Bowens, from the 734th Air Mobility Squadron and an Operation Christmas Drop organizer. “It’s also a great training opportunity because everything we do now for the drops is useful in the real world.”

More than 11 months of planning and preparing went into the operation, Bowens said. The Operation Christmas Drop volunteers at Andersen AFB and Yokota AB raised more than $52,000 from fundraisers and collected more than $20,000 in donated goods to aid in the humanitarian mission.

Military and civilian volunteers loaded 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of clothes, rice, fishhooks and other necessities into large-capacity boxes, before Airmen weighed and secured the gift boxes in preparation for delivery.

Twenty-two sorties are scheduled to be flown, covering more than 50 islands, where 140 boxes of donated goods will be dropped.

Even though military cargo aircraft are much louder than Santa’s sleigh, they are just as ready to bring joy to the island families.

BUILDING A HORN ANTENNA FOR RADAR

So you’ve built yourself an awesome radar system but it’s not performing as well as you had hoped. You assume this may have something to do with the tin cans you are using for antennas. The obvious next step is to design and build a horn antenna spec’d to work for your radar system. [Henrik] did exactly this as a way to improve upon his frequency modulated continuous wave radar system.
To start out, [Henrik] designed the antenna using CST software, an electromagnetic simulation program intended for this type of work. His final design consists of a horn shape with a 100mm x 85mm aperture and a length of 90mm. The software simulation showed an expected gain of 14.4dB and a beam width of 35 degrees. His old cantennas only had about 6dB with a width of around 100 degrees.
The two-dimensional components of the antenna were all cut from sheet metal. These pieces were then welded together. [Henrik] admits that his precision may be off by as much as 2mm in some cases, which will affect the performance of the antenna. A sheet of metal was also placed between the two horns in order to reduce coupling between the antennas.
[Henrik] tested his new standard gain horn antenna in a local football field. He found that his real life antenna did not perform quite as well as the simulation. He was able to achieve about 10dB gain with a field width of 44 degrees. It’s still a vast improvement over the cantenna design.
If you haven’t given Radar a whirl yet, check out [Greg Charvat’s] words of encouragement and then dive right in!

Oil air separator separator/oil trap for Mercedes Benz 6110160234

Description
Compressed air oil separator, is actually a compressed air with gas-liquid separator, it is not oil and water separation, is used to separate the condensed air in the condensation of water and oil impurities, so that the initial purification of compressed air. Separated oil and water from the sewage outfall together. The general use of pressure is not restricted, the use of temperature should be at room temperature. QF gas-liquid separator works: When the compressed air into the water separator after the flow direction and the rapid changes in speed, and then rely on centrifugal action, the density of oil droplets and water droplets larger than the compressed air separation. As shown in the figure for the common impact and ring rotary oil-water separator. Compressed air from the inlet into the separator shell, the air first by the barrier blocking the impact of folding back down, then rise back up, resulting in circular rotation. So that the water droplets and oil droplets in the centrifugal force and inertial force, separated from the air precipitation and settlement in the bottom of the shell, regularly open the bottom of the valve to drain oil droplets. The purified air is sent from the outlet to the tank.

Part Name: Oil separator,Crankcase breather oil trap
OEM: 6110160234

Application
BENZ: VITO W638

Wholesale welded plate heat exchanger from Hofmann

Smooth surface of welded plate heat exchanger is not easy to scale. Its unique design of the corrugated fluid at low flow rate can also produce turbulence, high heat transfer efficiency, the entire beam using the body material by the TIG welding. Do not use any non-metallic sealing material, which has a high temperature, pressure performance. Can be applied to the working temperature of 300 ℃, pressure 3.0Mpa extreme working conditions.

The Characteristics of All-welded Plate Heat Exchanger
The heat plate of all-welded plate heat exchanger is made of special stainless steel pressed with special mold. The smooth surface is not easy to scale, and its unique corrugated design allows fluid to generate turbulence under low velocity, so it can have high efficient heat transfer. In all our products, we do not use any nonmetal sealing materials, which ensure that our products have higher heat resistance and pressure resistance properties.
Our Main Application
a. Crude oil, natural gas purification treatment and chemical products: TEG interchangers, crude coolers, overhead condensers
b. Chemical industry: heaters, coolers, exchangers, condensers
c. Pharmaceutical industry: overhead condensers, heaters, coolers
d. Jet control system
e. HVAC，district heating, thermal power plant
f. Food science and technology