News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by lqet on Friday December 16, 2022 @09:38AM (#34014944)
Would it be possible to construct a seamless acrylic tube, maybe on-site?
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by barbegal on Friday December 16, 2022 @11:20AM (#34016360)
Not of this size. Certainly single pieces are used in other applications where safety is even more critical such as submersibles. But manufacturing a tube this big would be impossible.
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by plastiquebeech on Friday December 16, 2022 @11:28AM (#34016485)
Impossible to manufacture? Or financially impossible to build a factory for the purpose and larger infrastructure to accommodate transportation?

I'm curious if there is something about acrylics which makes it impossible to make very large single pieces.

Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by barbegal on Friday December 16, 2022 @11:52AM (#34016854)
I guess you could transport it at immense cost. But you'd also need a machine capable of moulding or extruding it this big. Current maximum for plastic pipes is about 3.5m diameter https://www.agru.at/en/applications/agruline/grand-opening-r... so you'd need something which is capable of more than 3 times the diameter.
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by CoastalCoder on Friday December 16, 2022 @07:53PM (#34022883)
Could one pour liquid acrylic into a mold (like with a concrete foundation), rather than extruding it?
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by yencabulator on Friday December 16, 2022 @12:32PM (#34017468)
You're making me think of this industrial scale 3D printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL2KoMNzGTo
Re:Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish burst... by tdeck on Friday December 16, 2022 @05:55PM (#34021751)
That's cool but it's all seams with 3d printing, so it seems like that would make the problem worse.

By the way, here's a big cool 3D printer that prints opaque acrylic: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CY3P28qyQ