3D printing scales up3D打印大发展.docx

3D printing scales up3D打印大发展Digital manufacturing: There is a lot of hype around 3D printing. But it is fast becoming integrated with mainstream manufacturing数字化制造业：关于3D打印的炒作有很多。但3D打印很快就要与主流制造业结合在一起了。Sep 7th 2013 |From the print editionPEEK through the inspection windows of the nearly 100 three-dimensional (3D) printers quietly making things at RedEye, a company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and you can catch a glimpse of how factories will work in the future. It is not simply that the machines, some as big as delivery vans, run day and night attended by just a handful of technicians. Instead it is what they are making that shows how this revolutionary production process is entering the manufacturing mainstream.红眼公司坐落在明尼苏达州的伊顿普瑞里，里面有将近100台三维（3D）打印机在静静地制造着产品，从这些机器的观察窗中望进去，你能够得以一窥未来的工厂是如何运转的。这里说的不单单是这些夜以继日地运行着的机器（有的有厢式货车那么大），以及区区几个管理它们的技术员。而是说这些机器正在制造的产品揭示了这一革命性的生产工艺是如何一步步汇入制造业主流之中的。3D printers make things by building them up, a layer at a time, from a particular material, rather than removing it by cutting, drilling or machining—which is why the process is also called additive manufacturing. There are many ways in which this can be done, and with only a tweak of software each item can be different, without the need for costly retooling of machines. This has made 3D printing a popular way to make one-off items, especially prototype parts, mock-ups, gadgets and craft items.3D打印机是采用特定的材料，一次一层地逐层累加将物品生产出来的，而不是通过切割、钻削或机加工逐步往下削减生产----这也是该工艺还被称做增材制造的原因。增材制造可以以通过许多种方式进行，只要对软件稍作调整，便可生产不同产品，而不需要费时费力地更换机器模具。这让3D打印成为制作一次性物品的流行方式，特别是原型件、实物模型、小配件以及工艺品。And that is about all that 3D printers are good for, reckon the doubters. Chief among them is Terry Gou, the boss of Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods, which makes many of Apple’s products in China. He thinks 3D printing is just “a gimmick” without any commercial value in the manufacture of real finished goods, and he has vowed to start spelling his name backwards if proved wrong.对此持怀疑态度的人们认为3