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I always thought of a industrial replicator as basically a factory in a box. Something that can make food, parts or even large objects like a car. Multiple at a time. Maybe the E-D had a smaller scale one.

But I had this idea that industrial replicator were the size of multiple shuttle craft, like having two trailers side by side or more. Having multiple pads that continuously replicate stuff ten at a time due to their large size of the pad.

E-D would have a scaled down version. Having only one of these pads per unit and reserved only for ship repair or mission specific.

You could argue there is replicator recycling areas as well. If you are replicating let's say a part or something consistently, you wouldn't have time to recycle those broken parts.

Or stuff doesn't break that often in the 24th century. It all about recalibration. Those flashy pen light things they carry is actually mini replicator that repair stuff according to the Padd or tricorder has the specifications

McAvoy wrote: E-D would have a scaled down version. Having only one of these pads per unit and reserved only for ship repair or mission specific.

You could argue there is replicator recycling areas as well. If you are replicating let's say a part or something consistently, you wouldn't have time to recycle those broken parts.

or build new laboratories and workstations for minor updates to the systems
or even allow the construction of new shuttlecraft ...

Or stuff doesn't break that often in the 24th century. It all about recalibration. Those flashy pen light things they carry is actually mini replicator that repair stuff according to the Padd or tricorder has the specifications

perhaps they reconstruct the material of a broken pipeline in a more precise manner than the good old welding

I've long maintained that even a modest replicator could replicate a shuttlecraft. Maybe not in one go, but think of a kit car, where a car can be assembled from smaller pieces. Surely something similar is possible with a shuttle, yes?

Graham Kennedy wrote:I've long maintained that even a modest replicator could replicate a shuttlecraft. Maybe not in one go, but think of a kit car, where a car can be assembled from smaller pieces. Surely something similar is possible with a shuttle, yes?

I completely agree. Even if there was some specific piece - let's say something that has to do with the limited warp drive - it makes complete sense that 95% or more of the shuttle craft's components could be replicated as needed and those few pieces stored on the ship. And since we've been discussing how much volume these ships really do have, it would be completely believable to think you could keep multiple copies those few non-replicated parts in an area not much bigger than a closet.

Hell, even if none of it could be replicated, something like a Type-3 Shuttle (Star Trek V) which is under 30 feet long, could easily be kept disassembled and stored in a reasonably small area. There's no reason to think that a handful of these shuttles could be kept in pieces in an area little larger than an average single car garage.

In a real world example, the below is an image of a Raymond reach truck, used in just about every warehouse I've ever been in. They are approximately 15 feet tall and four of them can ship fully assembled (you could actually do 6 if you really wanna squeeze) in a regular 53' (8' wide, 7' tall) trailer. If you could get creative stacking them and magically support the weight (They're like 2.5 tons each), you could actually fit 12 of them in the trailer, completely assembled. I can only imagine you could break down multiple shuttles in a similar overall area, even if you couldn't replicate anything but the seats and fuzzy Borg-Cube dice for the front screen.

Graham Kennedy wrote:I've long maintained that even a modest replicator could replicate a shuttlecraft. Maybe not in one go, but think of a kit car, where a car can be assembled from smaller pieces. Surely something similar is possible with a shuttle, yes?

I'm sure it's possible ... I think less than the crew of a ship can get to design one from scratch.

Bryan Moore wrote:

Graham Kennedy wrote:I've long maintained that even a modest replicator could replicate a shuttlecraft. Maybe not in one go, but think of a kit car, where a car can be assembled from smaller pieces. Surely something similar is possible with a shuttle, yes?

I completely agree. Even if there was some specific piece - let's say something that has to do with the limited warp drive - it makes complete sense that 95% or more of the shuttle craft's components could be replicated as needed and those few pieces stored on the ship. And since we've been discussing how much volume these ships really do have, it would be completely believable to think you could keep multiple copies those few non-replicated parts in an area not much bigger than a closet.

The TNG tech manual suggests that warp coils can't be replicated, there's a long involved 'baking' process to create them. But look at a Type 9 shuttle, the warp coils are maybe the size of care tires, if not smaller. I've suggested before, it's perfectly easy to believe that Voyager has a modest room somewhere with a couple of hundred spare warp coils stacked up. Maybe stocks of a few other bits and pieces. But year, most of it could easily be replicated.

Hell, even if none of it could be replicated, something like a Type-3 Shuttle (Star Trek V) which is under 30 feet long, could easily be kept disassembled and stored in a reasonably small area. There's no reason to think that a handful of these shuttles could be kept in pieces in an area little larger than an average single car garage.

In a real world example, the below is an image of a Raymond reach truck, used in just about every warehouse I've ever been in. They are approximately 15 feet tall and four of them can ship fully assembled (you could actually do 6 if you really wanna squeeze) in a regular 53' (8' wide, 7' tall) trailer. If you could get creative stacking them and magically support the weight (They're like 2.5 tons each), you could actually fit 12 of them in the trailer, completely assembled. I can only imagine you could break down multiple shuttles in a similar overall area, even if you couldn't replicate anything but the seats and fuzzy Borg-Cube dice for the front screen.

Here's a disassembled car :



Just look at how small most of those pieces are. Something like 95% of that stuff could come out of a standard food replicator. What are the big items, really? Chairs? Those could break down into smaller parts themselves. The body shell? You could easily design a car with a body that assembled from parts. I see no reason why you couldn't design a car, or a shuttle, where the largest piece is small enough to come out of this.



But we've seen that on the Galaxy there's also a central replimat-type place, and I can easily believe there's a pad somewhere in there that's say five times the size of that one. Such a thing could replicate whole chairs, car engines, etc. Assembling a shuttle that was designed to be fabricated that way should be simple.

And there's huge advantages. Every time you come up with a new shuttle design, you don't need to build and issue them. You just send out the replicator files and every ship can build their own. Incredible flexibility.

Now a true industrial replicator, I'd expect that to be many times the size. You'd replicate an entire completed shuttle at the push of a button with that. Or a house, say.

When you think about it, the Federation's production capacity should be really something. Their productivity per head should be many times ours.

Graham Kennedy wrote: The TNG tech manual suggests that warp coils can't be replicated, there's a long involved 'baking' process to create them. But look at a Type 9 shuttle, the warp coils are maybe the size of care tires, if not smaller. I've suggested before, it's perfectly easy to believe that Voyager has a modest room somewhere with a couple of hundred spare warp coils stacked up. Maybe stocks of a few other bits and pieces. But year, most of it could easily be replicated.

they could replicate the "oven" and bought the raw material ...

But we've seen that on the Galaxy there's also a central replimat-type place, and I can easily believe there's a pad somewhere in there that's say five times the size of that one. Such a thing could replicate whole chairs, car engines, etc. Assembling a shuttle that was designed to be fabricated that way should be simple.

And there's huge advantages. Every time you come up with a new shuttle design, you don't need to build and issue them. You just send out the replicator files and every ship can build their own. Incredible flexibility.

yeah, the new files arrive ... replicate and assemble the new shuttles ... and eventually dismantle and recycle the old ones if they are obsolete

Now a true industrial replicator, I'd expect that to be many times the size. You'd replicate an entire completed shuttle at the push of a button with that. Or a house, say.

When you think about it, the Federation's production capacity should be really something. Their productivity per head should be many times ours.

At this point the doubt is what prevents them from building even bigger ones and replicate an entire starship ... I imagine energy issues or things like that

bladela wrote:At this point the doubt is what prevents them from building even bigger ones and replicate an entire starship ... I imagine energy issues or things like that

Yeah, there must be practical limits on how big a replicator you can build, clearly the Federation isn't at a point where they can replicate an entire Galaxy class in one go. Maybe in a century or two.