Or the software industry, for that matter. TLA's are a literal cliche for us ;) Consider e.g. "This TCP segment has SYN bit set and a random number used for SEQ(A) synchronization". Or, at the more pointy headed side of the spectrum: TDD, TOS, SaaS, etc.
Acronyms have their place though - you can convey your thoughts tersely and usually reduce ambiguity, which is important in technical writing. You are probably doing a disservice to your reader by expanding acronyms (after first use) in most lengthy technical communication. Imagine a 1 pager full of sentences like the one you used in the example, but with no acronyms allowed. I think it would be harder to read.
It also depends on the perceived audience I guess.
Without presumption of your nationality, but mentioned here because of "expanding acronyms", I've noticed that North Americans almost exclusively seem to use an acronym and then explain it, whilst the rest of the English speaking world does the proper thing of using a term and then introducing an acronym to abbreviate.
