Free Republic

Spend a few minutes talking with Clèment Moreau, and you’re apt to start dreaming up your own three-dimensional (3D) creations: a customized toy, a work of art, or even a working robot. But as co-founder of 3D printing company Sculpteo, Moreau is less interested in hobbyist-only pursuits than he is in what professionals can do with the still-nascent technology. Sculpteo is a 3D printing company, but it doesn’t make 3D printers. With facilities in France, America and Israel, Sculpteo maintains its own manufacturing operations for 3D printing services. Companies and individuals send in their 3D renderings, and Sculpteo prints their...

Wayne Forler counts himself as one of the lucky ones. Forler, 57, who started at Webcrafters out of Monona Grove High School in 1966, now works as a head pressman and soon will mark 40 years with the company. "The best thing about Webcrafters is they never laid me off during slow times," he said. These days, he doesn't like standing on his feet too long during 12-hour shifts and said he sometimes regrets not getting into management because "it's air-conditioned and you sit." But, he said, pressmen earn $18 to $30 an hour at Webcrafters, a far higher rate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. factory orders rose at the fastest rate in four months during November as strong demand for new commercial aircraft pushed business up by 1.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted $377.42 billion, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. The November increase followed an upwardly revised 0.9 percent orders gain in October that previously was reported as a 0.5 percent rise and outstripped Wall Street economists' forecasts for a smaller 0.8 percent pickup. The data added to other signs that the nation's industrial sector wrapped up 2004 on a relatively healthy note, including the Institute for Supply Management's...