经济学人330:3D制造 给我打印一部电话

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　3D manufacturing

　　3D制造

　　Print me a phone

　　给我打印一部电话

　　New techniques to embed¹ electronics into products

　　新技术直接把电子元件嵌入产品中

　　OPEN up any electronic device and inside there are circuit boards, components² and bundles of wire.

　　拆开任何一个电子设备，你都会在里面发现电路板、电子元件和一束束电线。

　　2_副本.jpgAssembling these items into a product like a phone can be a tedious, labour-intensive process, and one that is often subcontracted to low-wage countries such as China.

　　把他们组合在一起做成产品的过程是很乏味的，这个劳动密集型的过程常常被分包给低工资的国家，比如中国。

　　Now new ways of printing electronics in three dimensions are being developed.

　　现在三维电子印刷术已经比较成熟，

　　This makes it possible to incorporate circuitry and components into the material the product is made from, such as the phone's case.

　　这种新方法使得在原材料上把电路和原件一体化成为可能，

　　It could revolutionise the way electronic goods are made.

　　这将彻底改变电子产品的生产方式。

　　Printing electronics is not new; screen printing, lithography, inkjet and other processes have long been used to manufacture circuit boards and components.

　　印刷电子技术并不新鲜，丝网印刷、光刻、喷墨印刷和其他技术用于生产电路板和元件已有很长时间，

　　But the technologies are improving rapidly and now allow electronics to be printed on a greater variety of surfaces.

　　由于该技术正飞速发展，现在已可以在各式各样的表面进行印刷。

　　In the latest developments, electronics printing is being combined with additive³ manufacturing, which uses machines popularly known as 3D printers to build solid objects out of material, one layer at a time.

　　在最近进展中，已经把电子印刷和快速成型制造结合在一起，快速成型制造就是使用机器对原材料进行逐层加工成型。

　　Printing electronics requires inks with electrical properties that can act as conductors, resistors or semiconductors⁴.

　　印刷电子技术需要带有电气性能的墨水，这些墨水能扮演导体、电阻或半导体的角色，

　　These inks are becoming more versatile⁵.

　　并且变得越来多才多艺，

　　One example comes from Xerox⁶, an American firm which makes office equipment and commercial printing systems. Its research centre in Canada has developed a silver ink which can be used to print flexible electronic circuits directly onto materials like plastic or fabrics⁷.

　　就拿施乐公司的例子来说，它开发的一种银质墨水能够直接在柔性材料上打印出电路，比如塑料和纤维织物。

　　Silver is a better conductor of electricity than copper⁸, which is typically used in circuits, but silver is expensive and tricky⁹ to print because it melts at 962°C.

　　银的导电性要比铜好，所以常用在电路中，但银不仅昂贵而且很难用于印刷。

　　However, by making silver into particles just five nanometres in size, Xerox has produced a silver ink which melts at less than 140°C.

　　然而实验室研究主管Paul Smith说，施乐公司通过把银制成仅有5纳米的小颗粒，生产的银质墨水就能在低于140°C熔化，

　　That allows it to be printed using inkjet and other processes relatively¹⁰ cheaply, says Paul Smith, the director of research at the laboratory.

　　这样的墨水能够通过喷墨方式或者其他比较廉价的处理方式进行打印。

　　Only minuscule¹¹ quantities of silver are used and there is no waste, unlike chemical-etching processes.

　　与化学蚀刻处理法不同，这种方法不仅银用量极少，并且不会浪费。

　　Xerox's PARC research centre in Palo Alto, California, is developing ways to use such inks.

　　施乐公司位于加州帕洛阿尔托的PARC研究中心正在研发使用此墨水的技术。

　　These can print circuits for various components, including flexible display screens, sensors¹² and antennae¹⁴ for radio-frequency security tags.

　　这些技术能够为不同的电子元件打印电路，包括柔性显示器、传感器和经安全认证的射频天线。

　　With the emergence¹⁵ of additive-manufacturing techniques, it starts to become possible to print such things directly onto the product itself, says Janos Veres, the manager of PARC's printed-electronics team.

　　PARC的电子印刷技术小组主管Janos Veres说，随着快速成型制造技术的出现，直接在产品身上印刷出电路开始变得可能。

　　That includes products with complex shapes.

　　这还包括具有复杂形状的产品，

　　Optomec, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has developed additive-manufacturing systems for a variety of industries.

　　总部位于新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的Optomec公司已经为多个行业开发了快速成型制造系统：

　　It can print electronics directly onto a pair of glasses, for augmented¹⁶ reality; it can make a plastic water tank that uses embedded¹⁷ electronics to measure how full it is and turn pumps on or off; it can print sensors on military armour¹⁸; or an antenna¹³ on the case of a mobile phone.

　　为了增强现实，它能直接在眼镜上进行电子印刷；它能运用嵌入电子技术测量塑料水箱里的水有多满，并控制水泵的开关；能在军用盔甲上印刷传感器；或在手机外壳上直接印刷天线。

　　In a recent three-way tie-up, Optomec worked with Aurora¹⁹ Flight Sciences, an American producer of unmanned aerial vehicles, and Stratasys, a 3D-printing company based in Minneapolis, to make a smart wing for a small drone.

　　在最近三方合作中，Optomec公司与极光飞行科学公司和Stratasys公司合力为小型无人机打造了智能机翼。

　　The wing was made from a thermoplastic material using a Stratasys 3D printer.

　　该机翼由热塑性材料制造，并由Stratasys的3D打印机成型，

　　Optomec then used a process it calls Aerosol²⁰ Jet to print circuits, sensors and an antenna on the wing.

　　然后Optomec采用名为气雾喷射的技术在机翼上印刷出电路、传感器和天线。

　　The idea is that such technology would allow lightweight drones that can be customised for specific missions and printed on demand.

　　采用这种技术的方法能够让轻量级无人机根据任务和需求进行定制和印刷。

　　Optomec's Aerosol Jet works very differently from inkjet printing, in which a print head positioned barely a millimetre away deposits a droplet²¹ of ink on a flat surface.

　　Optomec公司的气雾喷射技术与喷墨印刷术有很大不同。

　　Aerosol Jet at first atomises nanoparticle-based print materials into microscopic²² droplets²³, which are then focused, using a sheath of gas, into a precise jet stream directed by a nozzle.

　　后者打印头仅仅在一毫米远的位置把墨水微粒汇集在打印平面上，而气雾喷射技术会先把打印材料雾化为纳米级别的微小液滴，在气体护层下通过喷嘴进行精确聚集喷射，

　　The nozzle can be held five millimetres or more away from the surface, which allows irregular shapes to be coated.

　　这种喷嘴距离打印面5毫米或者更远，所以可以在不规则外形上进行打印。

　　Both the nozzle and the tray holding the item being printed can be manipulated through different angles to work on three-dimensional structures.

　　不管是喷嘴还是支撑被打印物体的托盘都可以在三维结构上通过改变角度进行操作，

　　The system can print electronic features smaller than a hundredth of a millimetre wide from a variety of materials.

　　比起动辄上百毫米的电子产品，该技术可以在多种材料上打印出更小的产品。

　　Instead of assembling an item from many separate components, 3D-printed electronics make it possible to print an entire product in a single machine, says Dave Ramahi, Optomec's chief executive.

　　不必把多个单独的组件装配到一起，3D电子印刷术使得用单一机器打印出整个产品成为可能，Optomec 首席执行官 Dave Ramahi说到。

　　However, for the technology to take off he believes it needs to be commercialised in an evolutionary²⁴ way.

　　然而他认为该技术的使用还需要经历商业化的发展，也就是说在目前大批量生产的过程中只在特定阶段采用该技术，

　　This means applying it at certain stages of existing mass-production processes, such as printing antennae onto mobile-phone cases. Many phones use a number of different antennae to connect to different radio networks, so this would make more room for conventional electronics inside.

　　比如在手机制造过程中印刷天线，因为很多手机采用不同的天线来接入不同的无线网络，这在传统电子产品内部会占用较大的空间。

　　Some commercial applications of the technology are less than a year away, adds Mr Ramahi.

　　他又补充说到，该技术的商业应用会在一年内实现。

　　So how difficult would it be to print a phone complete with all its electronic gubbins?

　　打印一部电话到底有多困难？

　　Optomec is developing applications which could provide some of the necessary steps.

　　Optomec正开发一些应用程序，它们可以提供一些必要的步骤。

　　Besides antennae these include edge circuits for the screen, three-dimensional connections for chips, multiple-layer circuits and touch-screen parts.

　　除了天线之外，它们还可以打印屏幕的边缘电路和联通芯片、多层电路板、触摸屏的三维连接器，

　　It would also be possible to print the battery.

　　甚至电池也可以被打印。

　　The biggest challenge would be to print the chips that are the brains of the phone.

　　但是最大的挑战来自于芯片的打印，

　　These contain millions of transistors²⁵ in a square millimetre and are at present made in silicon-fabrication plants costing $10 billion or more.

　　这里每平方毫米包含上百万个晶体管，并且目前可制造它的硅加设备价值100亿美元甚至更多，

　　Yet embedding²⁶ even some circuitry means phones could be made slimmer, as well as reducing the costs of materials and assembly.

　　而植入电路意味着手机可以做的更加纤薄，同时也减少了原材料和装配的成本。

1 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

2 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

3 additive   

adj.附加的；n.添加剂

参考例句：

• Colour is often an additive in foods.颜料经常是各种食物中的添加物。
• Strict safety tests are carried out on food additives.对食品添加剂进行了严格的安全检测。

4 semiconductors   

n.半导体( semiconductor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Crystals may be insulators, semiconductors, or conductors. 晶体可以是绝缘体，半导体，或导体。 来自辞典例句
• Semiconductors containing such impurities are called p-type semiconductors. 含有这类杂质的半导体叫做P型半导体。 来自辞典例句

5 versatile   

adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的

参考例句：

• A versatile person is often good at a number of different things.多才多艺的人通常擅长许多种不同的事情。
• He had been one of the game's most versatile athletes.他是这项运动中技术最全面的运动员之一。

6 xerox   

n./v.施乐复印机，静电复印

参考例句：

• Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
• You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家，但可以复印。

7 fabrics   

织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地

参考例句：

• cotton fabrics and synthetics 棉织物与合成织物
• The fabrics are merchandised through a network of dealers. 通过经销网点销售纺织品。

8 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

9 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

12 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

13 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

14 antennae   

n.天线；触角

参考例句：

• Sometimes a creature uses a pair of antennae to swim.有时某些动物使用其一对触须来游泳。
• Cuba's government said that Cubans found watching American television on clandestine antennae would face three years in jail.古巴政府说那些用秘密天线收看美国电视的古巴人将面临三年监禁。

15 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

16 Augmented   

adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• 'scientists won't be replaced," he claims, "but they will be augmented." 他宣称：“科学家不会被取代；相反，他们会被拓展。” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The impact of the report was augmented by its timing. 由于发表的时间选得好，这篇报导的影响更大了。

17 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

18 armour   

（=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队

参考例句：

• His body was encased in shining armour.他全身披着明晃晃的甲胄。
• Bulletproof cars sheathed in armour.防弹车护有装甲。

19 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

20 aerosol   

n.悬浮尘粒，气溶胶，烟雾剂，喷雾器

参考例句：

• They sprayed aerosol insect repellent into the faces of police.他们将喷雾驱虫剂喷在了警察的脸上。
• Aerosol particles affect visibility,climate,and our health and quality of life.气溶胶对大气能见度、气候变化以及人类健康等有重要影响。

21 droplet   

n.小滴，飞沫

参考例句：

• The rate of droplet growth under different conditions can be evaluated.可以计算在不同条件下的云滴增长率。
• The test results showed that increasing droplet size was associated with better stability.试验结果表明，增加液滴尺寸将使稳定性提高。

22 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

23 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

24 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

25 transistors   

晶体管( transistor的名词复数 )； 晶体管收音机，半导体收音机

参考例句：

• In semiconductor receivers transistors take the place of vacuum tubes. 在半导体收音机中晶体管代替了真空管。
• We often turn to this handbook for information on transistors. 我们常从这本手册查阅有关晶体管的资料。

26 embedding   

把…嵌入，埋入( embed的现在分词 )； 植入； 埋置； 包埋

参考例句：

• Data embedding in scrambled Digital video complete source code, has been tested. 数据嵌入在炒数字视频完整的源代码，已经过测试。
• Embedding large portions of C++ code in string literals is very awkward. 将大部分C++代码嵌入到字符串中是非常笨拙的。