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1、 经济学人官方双语汇总（15月）科技向3D打印技术Additive manufacturingA printed smile3D printing is coming of age as a manufacturing technique增材制造打印的笑容3D打印制造技术已渐成熟A SET of straight and gleaming teeth makes for a beautiful smile. But how many people who have undergone a little dental maintenance know that they may have ins
2、ide their mouths some of the first products of a new industrial revolution? Tens of millions of dental crowns, bridges and orthodontic braces have now been produced with the help of additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing. Forget the idea of hobbyists printing off small plastic trinke
3、ts at home. Industrial 3D printers, which can cost up to $1m, are changing manufacturing.一口整齐而闪亮的牙齿会让您的笑容更加美丽。但又有多少做过牙科治疗的人知道，新工业革命带来的第一批产品就在自己口中呢？如今，数以千万计的牙冠、牙桥和牙箍都是依靠增材制造，也就是俗称的3D打印生产出来的。别再觉得它只是爱好者在家里打印几个小塑料玩意了。价格可高达百万美金的工业3D打印机正在改变着制造业。The business of dentures shows how. For the metal bits in fal
4、se teeth, dentists have long relied upon a process called “investment casting”. This involves creating an individual model of a persons tooth, often in wax, enclosing it in a ceramic casing, melting out the wax and then pouring molten metal into the cavity left behind. When the cast is split open, t
5、he new metal tooth is removed. It is fiddly, labour-intensive and not always accurate; then again the casting method is some 5,000 years old.牙科行业就是一个明证。对于假牙中的金属件，牙医们长期以来都依靠一种名为“熔模铸造”的工艺。它要先做出患者的牙齿模型（一般是蜡制），封上陶瓷，再把蜡熔化后倒出，在其留下的空腔中注入熔融的金属。最后打开铸模，拿出新的金属牙齿。整个过程十分繁琐，相当辛苦而且并不总是很准确。再说，铸造法已经有5000年的历史了。Things
6、 are done differently at an industrial unit in Miskin, near Cardiff, set up by Renishaw, a British engineering company. The plant is equipped with three of the firms 3D printers; more will be added soon. Each machine produces a batch of more than 200 dental crowns and bridges from digital scans of p
7、atients teeth. The machines use a laser to steadily melt successive layers of a cobalt-chrome alloy powder into the required shapes. The process is a bit like watching paint dryit can take eight to ten hoursbut the printers run unattended and make each individual tooth to a design that is unique to
8、every patient. Once complete, the parts are shipped to dental laboratories all over Europe where craftsmen add a layer of porcelain. Some researchers are now working on 3D printing the porcelain, too.位于英国卡迪夫附近米斯金村（Miskin）的一家工厂则采取完全不同的做法。该工厂由英国工程公司雷尼绍（Renishaw）设立，配备了三台公司自产的3D打印机，很快还会再添数台。根据患者牙齿的数字扫描，
9、每台机器一批可以生产200多个牙冠和牙桥。机器用激光将一层层钴铬合金粉末稳定地熔融成所需的形状。整个过程有点像坐等油漆干燥，可能需要8到10个小时但打印机可以无人值守运行，按照每位患者独一无二的设计来制作牙齿。制作完成后，产品会被送往遍布欧洲的牙科实验室，手工加上瓷层。还有一些研究人员已经在研究3D打印陶瓷了。Say “ah”The mouth is not the only bodily testing-ground for 3D-printed products. Figures gleaned by Tim Caffrey of Wohlers Associates, an Americ
10、an consultancy that tracks additive manufacturing, show that more than 60m custom-shaped hearing-aid shells and earmoulds have been made with 3D printers since 2000. Hundreds of thousands of people have been fitted with 3D-printed orthopaedic implants, from hip-replacement joints to titanium jawbone
11、s, as well as various prosthetics. An untold number have benefited from more accurate surgery carried out using 3D-printed surgical guides; around 100,000 knee replacements are now performed this way every year.说“啊”口腔并不是3D打印产品在身体上唯一的试验场。关注增材制造的美国咨询公司Wholers Associates收集的数据显示，2000年以来，利用3D打印机定制生产的助听器壳
12、体和耳模已逾6000万件。从人工髋关节到钛颚骨再加上各种假肢，数十万患者已经安装了3D打印的骨科植入体。3D打印的手术导板让手术更为精确，造福无数患者。如今每年约有10万例膝关节置换手术是以这种方式进行的。That the health-care industry has so swiftly adopted additive manufacturing should be no surprise. People come in all shapes and sizes, so the ability of a 3D printer to offer customised production
13、 is a boon. The machines run on computer-aided design (CAD) software, which instructs a printer to build up objects from successive layers of material; a medical scan in effect functions as your CAD file. And software is faster and cheaper to change than tools used in a traditional factory, which is
14、 designed to churn out identical products.医疗保健行业如此迅速地接受增材制造并不奇怪。人的身材尺寸各异，因而 3D打印机定制化生产的能力是一个福音。计算机辅助设计（CAD）软件控制这些打印机，引导它们一层层地堆积材料来构建物体，医学扫描实际上就是你的CAD文件。传统工厂中的工具更适合批量生产一模一样的产品，而软件改动起来则更快速、更经济。Compared with the $70 billion machine-tool market, additive manufacturing is still tiny. But it is expanding
15、rapidly, and not just in health care. Overall, Wohlers estimates that 3D-printed products and services grew by 26% last year, to be worth nearly $5.2 billion. That is just the tip of a bigger mountain in the making. McKinsey, a management consultancy, reckons that in terms of things like better prod
16、ucts, lower prices and improved health, 3D printing could have an economic impact of up to $550 billion a year by 2025.和700亿美元的机床市场相比，增材制造仍然微小。但它扩张迅速，而且并不限于医疗保健行业。Wohlers估计， 3D打印产品和服务在去年整体增长了26%，总价值近52亿美元。而这只是日渐庞大的冰山初露的一角。管理咨询公司麦肯锡估计，如果考虑到更好的产品、更低的价格和健康的改善，到2025年，3D打印的经济影响将达到每年5500亿美元。One reason why 3D printers are becoming more mainstream is that the “inks” they use are getting better thanks to advances in materials science, says
