[ckilmer]

I’m thinking 3dprinting will cut the cost of pipelines in half.

You just truck the ingredients to the right spot and drop them into a 3d printer on tracks that works by continuously extruding pipeline.

Then —if its a water pipeline on a slope somehow stick in an electrical generator every chance you get generate electricity.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

I’m thinking 3dprinting will cut the cost of pipelines in half.

You just truck the ingredients to the right spot and drop them into a 3d printer on tracks that works by continuously extruding pipeline.

Then —if its a water pipeline on a slope somehow stick in an electrical generator every chance you get generate electricity.

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3d printing is a time consuming operation which finds it's niche fabricating parts with complex internal detail. A pipe is defined by the external diameter and the wall thickness. Fabricating a pipe is easy if you start with a coil of sheet steel with a thickness equal to the required wall dimension and used rollers to form the tube shape. Electric arc welding can keep up with the emerging tube and weld the longitudinal seam on the fly. The process is quick and easy to do.

The idea of extracting energy from the flowing water is novel. If the pipe is heading down slope all the way from it's source to it's destination it might work. If however, it has to climb hills as well as descend you may find the flow slows drastically and it requires a pump to keep it moving at the desired rate. (That is true even if you don't try to generate electricity.)

The Roman engineers built aqueducts from the mountains to their cities. When they encountered a valley, they built a bridge like structure supporting an open topped trough. The idea being to maintain the downward slope throughout the length of the aqueduct.

Regards,
GtG