Re: What's in a......?

From: Brock Hinzmann (bhinzmann@sric.sri.com)
Date: Sat Nov 18 2000 - 05:00:01 EET


Arriving late to this conversation
Perhaps I can entertain you
By relating some belated
Names of RP venues.

It's probably worth repeating
That in the beginning they were all competing
To be the name to beat
But most went down in defeat

Desktop manufacturing, DTM
Was more than a Texas acronym
But also the name of the whole category
According to one publisher's story

Battelle's Photochemical Machining
Gave intersecting lasers a meaning
Shining into a solid block of goop
But it couldn't compete with SOUP

The Quadrax Laser Modeler
Fought the battle, then lost 'er
Attempting to slay the SLA
Just wasn't worth what it cost 'er

The D-MEC Solid Creation System
Got a few people to listen
And SOMOS Solid Imaging System
Sort of describes the intention

Solid Freeform Fabrication
Was an early nom de tool
And I liked Photo-Optic Object Fabrication
For the occasional April fool

We once held an election and all had a vote
Rapid Prototyping won without a hand tote
But Holoformers got the kind of support
That Ralph Nader could promote

Describing something as two-and-a-half-D
Is too much to describe to my mother-in-law for me
I'd prefer to say it prints in 3-D
Even though it still prints in layers, technically

Sculpter and Builder names sound great
And Nanomolecular Assemblers await
And this time of year I like to say
The Santa Claus Machine is on its way

For all you Automated Fabricator haters
The term will die out sooner or later
And since Marshall won't change his mind
Why don't you just lighten up and be kind

If you were wondering how I would end this matter
Sitting there at your proverbial work bench
It is to tell Mike Doty that spanner
Is the British word for wrench.

Best regards,
Brock Hinzmann
Technology Navigator

Peter Blacklin wrote:
>During my post grad at Cranfield the gentlemen who were studying for
MBA's
>called us "Welders" .
>
>Initially we thought this was a compliment, an MBA actually knowing what

>welding was and marveling at our phenomenal prowess for joining metals
in all
>manner of ways.
>
>When asked why, the reply was that when asked a question, the engineers
>invariably began; "well derrr ....!"
>
>(Probably because our conversations were held in the student bar, which
>could go towards explaining the behavior of some of my more verbally
challenged
>colleagues or at least, during the evenings.)
>
>Peter Blacklin
>
>Optimum Solutions Inc.
> (410) 730 3371 Tel
>(410) 730 6359 Fax
>blacklin@erols.com
>
>Perfection is not optional.

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