Nostal6ie/Dreamstime
CAD design of pipelines
CAD design of pipelines
CAD design of pipelines
CAD design of pipelines
CAD design of pipelines

Design Insights: Bridging Dimensions in Design; Pump up the Value of 3D

Aug. 2, 2021
A review of the day’s top trending stories from Machine Design editors.

Bridging Dimension in Design

It’s a 3D world out there, but designers have worked in 2D drawings for decades. The emergence of 3D design has been a great step forward, but how do you continue to utilize, and even enhance, the value of your 2D materials?

A new Design FAQ, presented by Machine Design and SOLIDWORKS, talks about integrating 2D and 3D tools to provide all your drawing needs across multiple departments—architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). This allows each stakeholder in the design process allowing to view what they need for their specific job. The aim is to shorten design time between initial customer contact and proposal delivery and allow you to progressively build your design and prototyping capabilities in tandem with multiple team players.

The link to the Design FAQ is here.

Pump up the Value of 3D

The value of 3D design extends to the creation of products as well, and engineers continue to find interesting ways to leverage the specific manufacturing opportunity that 3D printing offers.

As Machine Design reports today, engineers have developed technologies for harvesting geothermal energy through the use of a 3D printer part to optimize current geothermal pump technologies.

Associate professor Terence Musho and Berry Chair Emeritus Nigel Clark in the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at the University of West Virginia devised a new method that employs a 3D-printed device—a sparger head—to generate bubbles and lift water to the surface.

Once air is injected deep into a geothermal well, it rises to interact with geothermal fluids. As the air bubbles rise to the top, an exchange in momentum causes the geothermal fluids to rise. A video explaining this phenomenon is available here.

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