This week’s roundup has a lot in store; from HP’s massive industrial 3D printer to spray-on antennas, because who doesn’t want more design and product innovation? Let’s jump right in!

HP showcases new metal 3D printing system

It’s huge, it’s by the household name HP (haven’t we all had an HP printer at some point?), and it’s touted to be the first 3D printer that can print metal parts at production scale. What is it? The HP Metal Jet, and it’s supposedly 50 times more productive than any rivaling technology on the market. The printer won’t be for sale quite just yet, but companies can already order parts printed by this fantastic monstrosity. See it in action on Thomasnet, where David Mantley tells us all about it.

Antennas will no longer restrict device design

Current devices that connect wirelessly to other devices are somewhat restricted in their design because they need to be fitted with antennas. Those need to have a certain shape, and therefore antennas can’t be fitted into everything either. Drexel University, however, has found a way to create an almost transparent coating made of MXene, a thin metallic material, that is as effective as traditional antennas. The material can be two-dimensional and can be practically sprayed onto surfaces, which means there are no longer any restrictions as to what these antennas can be fitted into, or what antenna-needing devices need to look like in order to allow for one. Michael Irving describes this interesting material on New Atlas, check it out!

An alternative to air-conditioning

Luckily, there are parts of the world that don’t need to fit their houses with air conditioning, but as climate changes and weather becomes less predictable, crazy temperature spikes do cause more and more people to get a cooling system installed in their houses. These, unfortunately, consume more energy, adding to the whole climate change problem. Columbia University developed an alternative that may make AC unnecessary: a white polymer coating you can paint the exterior of your house with, which will noticeably reduce the temperature inside. A cost-effective and environmentally safer way to deal with those hot summers. Kristin Houser on Futurism explains how we can keep it cool.

Siemens tool to calculate electric transport needs

As if city planners didn’t have enough challenges, they also need to figure out how to best provide for electric vehicles. The use of EVs benefits all, as it’s less polluting, and since EVs are on the rise, the infrastructure needs to follow suit. Siemens released a tool to help answer such questions like: how many charging stations does a particular area need? Will adding more chargers convince buyers on the fence to go for an EV? And what will the impact be on parking and land use? Jason Plautz on Smart Cities Dive tells us more about this new tool powered by Siemens!

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