Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. Behind the Design: Bram Ramon’s Watch Engravings Engraving isn’t just for little league trophies or IT departments; for Bram Ramon, it’s an evolving art medium. Ever since he started working on fine…

Fans of inflatable bouncy castles and comfy car seats have reason to rejoice because 3D-printed inflatables are now a thing! Created by the minds at the Self-Assemble Lab of MIT and BMW, these inflatables adapt and transform by themselves to suit your comfy needs. Dubbed “Liquid Printed Pneumatics,” these silicone materials take on different shapes depending on how much air pressure is pumped into them. While this would no doubt bring improvements to the balloon animal industry, the guys behind these printed inflatables are planning to put the materials to more practical fields, such as car seats. With this technology, having a seat which adjusts itself based on user preference…

Having a place to jot down your ideas when inspiration strikes is a must for any designer or engineer. Yet, finding the ideal (durable!) scratchpad to keep in your pocket (or close by) at all times isn’t always easy. Which is why we love the Rollbahn pocket memo from Rollbahn. Featuring a gold metal cover (yep—really!) and tearaway gridded pages, this edition of the iconic Japanese notebook is the perfect fusion of simplicity and function. Rollbahn Gold Metal Cover Pocket Memo (Gridded Pages) — $12.14 Features: Made in Japan 112×138mm Durable Metal Cover Elastic Enclosure Perforated Tearaway Pages PURCHASE VIA AMAZON Affiliate purchases help support SolidSmack through a small commission…

I’m reading a brief analysis by Gartner’s Pete Basiliere on how 3D printing could affect business models. Business models, of course, are critical devices for the successful operation of a business. They define how money is spent and collected based on the creation and distribution of value to clients. Companies without business models are not long for this world. Basiliere correctly points out that the business models we’ve long been familiar with are a product of the technologies employed by businesses for a century: mass manufacturing and the pursuit of efficiency led to a world where “all products are the same”. But he points out that 3D printing could shake…

America is a litigious country.  Without any subjective opinion, many of our founding fathers were lawyers and many of the rights and benefits that we enjoy today are the result of court cases.  In terms of intellectual property, it can be a double-edged sword. While intellectual property and the protection that it affords to companies in the U.S. is invaluable to producing great products, many have bastardized the protection that a patent affords. Companies have often been sued over patent infringement by no-practicing entities who abuse the system (as was done in a small East Texas district). Regardless, it is imperative to patent your new product idea as soon as possible.…

Most designers and engineers already know that Arduino is a powerful and versatile platform for creating electronics projects. Yet, knowing where to dive into learning about the powerful little computer isn’t quite so easy. From building robots to adding a little IoT intelligence into weekend projects, the Pay What You Want: 2018 Arduino Enthusiast E-Book Bundle is the perfect place to begin broadening your horizons in the world of Arduino. The project-based approach presented in the course teaches users how to create everything from DC motor controllers operated by a web page, slide switch, or touch sensors to constructing electronic operating status displays for just about anything. Best of all,…