HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
Image Source: My own creation
Intent: Advanced new method of mass-production for the Guild of Hammers and Abregado-Rae
Development Thread: If necessary
Manufacturer: Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers
Model: The Replicator-Series 3-D Printer
Affiliation: Barony of Abregado-Rae
Modularity: No
Production: Limited
Material: Durasteel Main Components, Electrum Internal Components, Echani Graphite Capsules and Tanks
Description: With the increasing production demands out up on Abregado-Rae by the Guild of Hammers and Iron Company via quickly developing weapons and armor market (which expansion was fueled by the Guild's development in railgun weaponry, armor, and gadgets) so did the industrial side of the planet needed to expand. However, while there was thirst for bigger market among the prospering people of Abregado-Rae, there was not always as much space for such without greater impacts on the planet's ecology, and while some were willing to overlook that, HK did not wanted to repeat the Cataclysm of Khazund, where he and his copies led to collapse of the planet's ecosystem by over-production and rapid industrialization, forcing the native Khazund to evacuate the planet and go into exile.
And so, the droid has put up request in the Gados research lab for new manufacturing process to be developed, one that can afford higher rate of production without leading to collapse of the planetary ecology.
What came of that was not in earnest the full realization of the request, nor was it fully a mean of production.
What come of that was a new recycling system.
The Replicator-Series 3-D Printer is, as the name suggests, a 3-D printer, what that means it can create full copies of objects over and over again should a template and enough material be given to it. The way it works first a template needs to be inserted into one of the two Input Tanks, this can be a solid object, liquid (such as water), and even gas (although in default setting the gases in the atmosphere are ignored as to not contaminate the specimen chosen for template) the template is then scanned and disintegrated, the molecules from it are captured and arranged in the central Replication Chamber and a copy of it is produced from the back of the machine in the Output Slot. If the replicated copy is incorrect of faulty the Replicator can be recalibrate and the copy placed through the Input Tank once more to retry the process.
What can be used as templates and what can be broken down in the Input Tanks as fuel for replication? Well here's the beauty of it- pretty much anything. Of course there are restrictions to this which I will describe later but one could indeed put refuse from industrial processes, scrap, even common garbage like discarded filmsy sheets or containers from foodstuff, have that break down in the tanks into separate molecules, and use that to replicate water, oxygen, foodstuff like the MRE's, even some droids. This machine can take landfills and turn them into a mass of foodstuff for planets gripped by starvation.
Now, the downsides of it. To start off with the biggest one, machines are not perfect, and as mentioned before the Replicator does make mistakes. While the smaller kinks or miscalculations can be fixed with recalibration, the machine still has trouble tackling on more complex systems like large or more advanced droids, machines of war like tanks, and especially, organic beings. No matter how small the organic being would be, due to their complexity the Replicator would always make a mistake when manufacturing them. That means no instant clone army out of landfill, unfortunately, and neither does it mean an instant swarm of tanks or HK droids. If this machine would try to clone a Republic soldier, for example, or a Space-Hamster, there would be a very strong chance (80% or so) that the being would come out deformed, unable to function, or unstable and disintegrate soon after creation. Same would apply when someone would attempt to copy an HK droid, there would be a strong chance the droid would come out deformed, insane, some if not most of its components would not function, and it could disintegrate soon after creation. However as the products manufactured by these systems decrease in complexity so does decreases the risk of a mistake being made during the replication process. For example simpler droids, like common war grunt war-droids (B1 series comes to mind), can be produced in high numbers with only fewer of them coming out with imperfections. Even greater is the chance of the products coming out without kinks if it's just the separate components being replicator, for example while a whole tank can't be manufactured at once, its armor plates can be made, then its engine, barrel, and so forth until a whole tank can be assembled, same extends to some organic components, such as sheets of leather or skin and bones.
There is also the issue of energy, the Replicator system require both higher quantities of energy than normal manufacturing methods, due to the disintegrating components, as well as it cannot create energy on its own. That means if it was to replicate any batteries they would come out devoid of power, just as well other electronic components and droids would be in need of their power supplies replaced right after replication.That is why this manufacturing system is not the full answer to HK's request for ecology friendly production, while it does provide a great new recycling option for pretty much any kind of refuse, it does make up for it in energy requirements, as such it cannot completely replace current methods of manufacturing on Abregado-Rae until new, equally ecology friendly energy supply systems are developed to go along with it.
That goes into another of its weaknesses, although a more artificial one, the availability of these systems are limited, there are about only dozen of these machines functioning on Abregado-Rae, the customers to whom this would be sold would be very carefully chosen, safe to say this is a very exclusive product as HK wishes it to remain Abregado's monopoly for as long as they can maintain it, just as well he does not want it to fall into wrong hands like the accursed Sith.
And finally, the speed of the manufacturing done by this machine is slower than that of conventional production methods, as it has to break down the materials it uses for construction and then assemble the molecules into the product.
In summary,
the Replicator-Series 3-D Printer is a revolutionary recycling system as well as manufacturing system, it can take any physical objects, such as liquids, gases, and solid objects like old refuse, break them down into basic molecules, and then re-arranged them back into physical objects, like water, oxygen, weapons, simpler droids, foodstuff like the MRE's, or components like bones, armor plates, or electronics. However, it cannot replicate complex systems like advanced droids, machines, or organic beings, it has also high energy requirements, meaning it cannot be fully implemented on mass scale until new energy systems are created to go along with it.
