Manufacturing Technology of Charted Space
Industry is a very large part of technological civilizations is their ability to manufacture increasingly sophisticated tools. Industry creates manufacturing and manufacturing is a key component of creating technology.
- Increasingly sophisticated tools are popularly known as devices or gadgets.
- A very fundamental part of technology is: "...using tools to build other tools."
Library Data Referral Tree
Please see the following AAB Library Data articles for more information:
Manufacturing Technology of Charted Space - Ship Design:
- Services
- Design description
- Imperial Standard Catalog Number (ISCN)
- Quick Ship Profile (QSP)
- Standard Equipment Identification (SEI)
- Universal Ship Profile (USP)
- Design process
- Quick Ship Design System (QSDS)
- Standard Ship Design System (SSDS)
- Design Elements
- Construction
- Subplanetary Construction
- Planetary Construction
- Stellar Construction
- Suprastellar Construction
- Galactic Construction
- Supragalactic Construction
- Facility
Description (Specifications)
Part of the feudal confederation of the Third Imperium is a system that tolerates and encourages innovation as expressed through cultural and technological differences. In practice this means that while intersocietal interaction protocols exist, there are huge differences between the various industrial manufacturing regions of the Third Imperium.
- Even many of the shipyards possess very different manufacturing bases.
- This is part of what makes depot worlds so important; they collect and consolidate manufacturing knowledge.
Image Repository
No information yet available.
Interstellar Industrial Manufacturing Standards
Ancient Terra once had an organization called the ISO (International Organization of Standards), which created manufacturing standards for the various nation-states of Old Earth. The Rule of Man brought a similar idea to the Second Imperium and overlaid the idea on the manufacturing capabilities of the Vilani Bureaux. From that fertile cross-pollination of two industrial giants was developed the Imperial Naval Depot system and several manufacturing standardization schemes.
Universal Manufacturing Templates (UMT's)
UMT's are very specific data files that describe in excruciating detail the specifications to manufacturing a technological device. They contain critical pathways, dual use methodologies, prerequisite technology paths, and in depth instructions for both an object and all of the technologies leading to it. Such information can be incredibly valuable or decidingly commonplace. The simpler UMT's can be purchased from the street peddlers of more technologically advanced worlds while more sensitive technologies might only be available on megacorporation fab worlds or naval depots.
Standard Equipment Identification (SEI) Codes
An SEI code is a semi-standardized designation for a technological object. It is composed of several letters abbreviated to describe the object's common name followed by the object's technology level as a number. For instance, a Re-5 is the SEI for a TL-4 revolver, a kind of projectile weapon that fires bullets commonly inflicting kinetic damage. While a UMT explains how to manufacture an object, a SEI is a common description for technological objects of certain types and expected capabilities.
| SEI Revolver Code Example | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEI | Common Name | TL | D-1 | Range | Common Cost | Weight | Remarks |
| Re-4 | Revolver | TL-4 | -4 | R=2 | Cr100 | 1.2 kg | Bullet -1 |
Imperial Standard Catalog Number (ISCN)
To control the logistical flow of traffic, the Imperial military uses the Imperial Standard Catalog Number system. Everything that can conceivably be issued is given a 12-digit identifier. Materials are requisitioned using these numbers. and it is easy to check if the unit is authorized for the material requested. [1]
The ISCN number has three main parts:
- The first three digits are a general classification number. Personal weapons are OUI, dining facility equipment 152, etc.
- The next four spaces are an alphanumeric code for the region and year in which the item was first procured.
- The final five spaces are a unique item code. [2]
Catalog numbers have no relationship to any model numbers or names that the equipment might have. A KG56A3 Gauss Rifle will show up in the supply chain as a OUI-COR9-47329. Soldiers know that supply workers who refer to equipment by full ISCNs are likely to lack any flexibility or sense of humor. [3]
Even large pieces of equipment, such as grav tanks, have their own ISCN numbers. Along with the number to describe the entire vehicle. Every one of its components should have its own ISCN. Trying to keep track of all the parts and systems can grow very confusing, especially since similar parts will tend to have ISCNs close to each other. [4]
Occasionally mistakes do get past the system, and a psychological warfare unit might find itself with a 005-VLDO-II0765 Meson Artillery Sled rather than the 050VLDO-110765 Portable Detention Facility (Vargr) that they expected. Mistakes might also be made in the size of the order, causing a unit thai expected 100 boxes of self-healing combat rations to receive 100 cases instead. When things like this happen, a good supply sergeant knows just what to do. [5]
Industrial QREBS Standards
Long ago, the Imperial Naval Depot System worked out means for not only classifying the technological levels of manufactured goods, and standard codes to name an object, but also the other qualities and characteristics of any manufactured item. This system, the QREBS System is used throughout the Third Imperium and beyond.
QREBS stands for:
- Quality
- Reliability
- Efficiency
- Burden
- Safety
History & Background (Dossier)
Many often get the mistaken impression that a Technology Level System indicates that all societies and civilizations will neatly progress through the levels in a neat sequence. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, technology can be quite a messy thing with some societies skipping entire branches of forecast technological progression, skipping entire levels, or otherwise not following the expected TL system sequence.
- Nevertheless, a good plurality of societies tracked by the IISS do seem to follow a semi-standardized sequence of manufacturing progression.
Manufacturing Technology Table
| TL | Historical Era | Primary manufacturing technologies |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Stone Age (fire) | Found Tools |
| 1 | Bronze Age (3500 BC) | Cottage industries |
| 1 | Iron Age (1200 BC) | Limited mass production techniques |
| 1 | Medieval Age (600 AD) | Guilds and professional workforce |
| 2 | Age of Sail (1450 AD) | Interchangeable parts, design drawings to scale and dimension |
| 3 | Industrial Revolution (1730 AD) | Water power, factories |
| 4 | Mechanized Age (1880 AD) | Steam power, basic electrical power |
| 5 | Circa 1910 AD | Complex labor organization, operations research, basic quality control, vertical integration |
| 6 | Nuclear Age (1940 AD) | Indexable tooling, standardized quality control and testing |
| 7 | Circa 1970 AD | NC analog machine control |
| 8 | Digital Age (1990 AD) | Digital machine controls, CAD drawing, basic manufacturing robots. |
| 9 | Early Stellar (2050 AD) | 3D additive layer printing, integrated information systems |
| 10 (A) | Early Stellar (2120 AD) | Networked manufacturing, autonomous design by computer |
| 11 (B) | Average Stellar | Zero G manufacturing / anti-grav manufacturing, basic terraforming |
| 12 (C) | Average Imperial | Artificial densification of materials on mass scale |
| 13 (D) | Average Stellar | Matter compiler: Molecules to products |
| 14 (E) | High Stellar | Organic computers allow guided self-invention |
| 15 (F) | Imperial Maximum | First "Santa Claus" machines appear. Planetary terraforming |
| 16 (G) | Darrian Historical Maximum | Beyond sustainable technological standards of Charted Space |
Epochal Manufacturing Technology Periods
Imperial society typically classifies manufacturing technologies by chronological epochs and periods.
Industrial Period
No information yet available.
- Factory manufacturing (Fab-Tech)
- Pre-industrial (Early Tool)
- Meso-industrial (Makertech)
- Post-industrial (Rep-Tech)
Makertech Period
No information yet available.
- "Weak or Early Nanotechnology"
- Makertech
- Flashchip
- Automatic Factory
- Nanotechnology
- Manufacturing Sequence
- Micro weaving
- Universal Manufacturing Template
Ultratech Period
No information yet available.
- "Strong, Late, or Advanced Nanotech"
- Precursor tech
- Ancients
References & Contributors (Sources)
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- GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces
- T5 Core Rules
- Author & Contributor: Enoki
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science
- ↑ Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 83.
- ↑ Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 83.
- ↑ Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 83.
- ↑ Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 83.
- ↑ Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 83.