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伦敦科技展显示3D打印技术进步

WASHINGTON—

A technology known as 3-D printing, or "additive¹ manufacturing," has long been used for producing prototype models of three-dimensional objects.  A new exhibit that opened in London Thursday shows how the technology has evolved to save time and money in producing machines, clothes, cars and even body parts, using rapid prototyping industrial robots, known as 3-D printers

一项被称为3D打印的技术一直以来被应用于实物三维模型的仿制上。9月4日，在伦敦开幕的一场新品展览中，我们见识了3D打印技术的显著进步。3D打印机如今可以直接制造机械、衣物、汽车乃至人体部件，为人们节省大量的时间与金钱。

On display at the exhibit is a car that can reach speeds of 320 kilometers per hour and is set to be entered in the Le Mans 24-hour race. It is the result of several prototypes built by Strakka Racing², a company based in Silverstone, England - the home of Britain's motor sports.

这辆车的最高时速高达每小时320公里，将被用来参加勒芒24小时耐力赛。这辆车是位于英格兰银石地区的斯特拉卡公司是用几件模型所合成的结晶。而该公司的所在地，又正是英国赛车运动的起源地。

"Motorsports is such a competitive industry that if you're slow in bringing something to the track, you fall behind, and once you fall behind it's almost impossible target=_blank class=infotextkey>possible to catch up,” said Dan Walmsley, engineer and team principal for Strakka Racing.

斯特拉卡车队工程师、车队负责人沃姆斯利说：“赛车运动就是这样一个竞争激烈的行业；如果你在某项技术上慢了，你就落后了。一旦你落后了，再追上几乎就是不可能的了。”

Like many other teams, Strakka has been using 3-D printing of components⁴ to try out designs and materials as quickly as possible target=_blank class=infotextkey>possible. But the company is now producing the actual car parts using the 3-D print technology, which is essentially⁵ adding layers of material under computer control to get a desired shape.

像其它车队一样，斯特拉卡一直尽可能快地用3D打印所制造的零部件来对设计和材料进行新的尝试。但是如今该公司利用3D打印技术直接制造新的零部件。大体来讲是在计算机的控制下生产材料层，以获得所预期的形状。

"So we've got aerodynamic components on the car such as the front dive planes, the air intake⁶, interior components. We found that the material properties have recently moved forwards to a point where they're stiff enough and strong enough and light enough to function as a fully⁷ finished production component³ on a race car," explained Walmsley.

沃姆斯利说：“我们将气动元件如前潜水架、进气口、内部部件等装在车上。我们发现，材料的性能又上了一个台阶，现在具有足够的硬度、强度和较轻的重量，符合赛车对于零部件的要求标准。”

A Dutch producer is developing smaller drones for use in everyday life, like surveying areas for fires or other problems.

 一架来自荷兰的制造商正在研究将小型无人机运用到日常生活中，以执行如火灾检测等任务。

"At the moment we're working on drone-to-drone communication, that is where a drone can talk with another drone and knows where he is in the area, at this stage we're developing this. For the future, drones will only get smarter and smaller and will do stuff we cannot imagine now," said Joost Hezemans, head of design for drone manufacturer Aerialtronics.

无人机制造商阿莱兹尼克斯公司设计总监赫兹曼斯说： “目前，我们正在着力研究无人机之间的通讯。现在的阶段是，我们在研究一架无人机如何与另一架无人机进行交流，并获知其所在的具体区域。从未来来看，无人机将会变得更聪明、更小，甚至可以做一些我们现在无法想象的事情。”

Movie costume makers⁸ also find the technology useful.

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影视服装制造商也受益于3D打印技术。

"Not so long ago if we'd have invested a lot of time in making a prototype, if we found that it didn't fit or we had to change it dramatically, you know, you're really going back massive amount of weeks of work. Now, you can make the modifications⁹ pretty quick," said Grant Pairman, costume manufacturer for FBFX Ltd.

FBFX服装生产公司皮尔曼说：“还在不久之前，我们需要花很多的时间来制作一个样本，如果我们发现不合适的话，还需要做大量的修改，这可能会好再耗上几个月的时间。现在改起来就快多了。”

Naomi Kaempfer, creative director of Stratsys, a U.S. manufacturer of 3-D printers, says manufacturing in 3-D printing is still evolving.

时装设计师们也持相同看法。但三维打印机制造商斯切特西公司的创意总监坎普弗尔说，3D技术仍在不断向前发展。

“We are still waiting for 3-D printed materials that have the right durability¹⁰ and the strength that textile fiber¹¹ allows. We have to understand that 3-D printing is an additive layered technology, and in order to create fiber strength you actually need to have a continuous fiber going through the material,” said Kaempfer.

坎普弗尔说：“现在3D打印的成品在耐久性与纤维匹强度上都还不属于最佳。我们必须了解3D打印技术是一项是材料层生产技术。为了使生成的纤维的具有强度，我们需要将纤维不断添加到生成材料中去。”

Today, 3D printing has come a long way from the time when it served to produce models for plastic surgeons, architects and manufacturers to only visualize¹² the final product.

照比之前的只能够为整形医生、建筑师和生产商们提供视觉化的产品模型，3D打印技术在今天已经取得了长足的进步。