经济学人:3D打印为汽车定制化服务再创里程碑

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　商业：3D打印：打印我的座驾

　　A mass-market carmaker starts customising vehicles individually.

　　大众化生产商开启汽车定制新时代。

　　Another milestone¹ has been passed in the adoption² of additive³ manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing.

　　积层制造即3D打印再创里程碑。

　　Daihatsu, a Japanese manufacturer of small cars and a subsidiary of Toyota, an industry giant, announced on June 20th that it would begin offering car buyers the opportunity to customise their vehicles with 3D-printed parts.

　　6月20日，行业巨头日本丰田汽车的子公司，小型汽车制造巨头大发宣布将为客户提供3D打印零件定制服务。

　　This brings to drivers with more modest budgets the kind of individual tailoring of vehicles hitherto restricted to the luxury limousines⁴ and sports cars of the super-rich.

　　这项服务使得预算有限的车主也能像拥有奢华轿车及跑车的巨富们一样定制自己的汽车。

　　The service is available only to buyers of the Daihatsu Copen, a tiny convertible⁵ two-seater.

　　不过这项服务仅适用于小型双座敞篷跑车大发Copen。

　　Customers ordering this car from their local dealer⁶ can choose one of 15 “effect skins”, decorative⁷ panels embellished⁸ with intricate patterns in ten different colours.

　　公司将十种不同颜色的复杂图案点缀在板金上，设计出15种“外观皮肤”，在当地经销商处订购Copen车型的消费者可以从中任选一种。

　　The buyers can then use a website to tinker with the designs further to create exactly the look they want.

　　他们还可以在网上进一步完善该设计，以达到他们想要的效果。

　　The skins are printed in a thermoplastic material using additive-manufacturing machines from Stratasys, an American company.

　　通过采用美国公司Stratasys的积层制造设备，这些皮肤可被打印在热塑性材料上。

　　The results are then stuck on the front and rear body panels.

　　然后打印好的成品会被贴在车身前后部位。

　　Copen buyers will like selecting unique add-ons rather than choosing from a list of standard accessories, reckons Osamu Fujishita of Daihatsu.

　　大发的Osamu Fujishita认为，相比于在一系列标准化的配饰中挑挑拣拣，Copen车型的买家更乐意挑选独一无二的配饰。

　　The company is testing the service in a few markets but plans to make it widely available by early 2017.

　　目前这项定制服务只在部分市场试运行，但公司计划于2017年初广泛开展这项业务。

　　“I think the Copen project is just the start,” adds Mr Fujishita.

　　Fujishita先生补充说：“我认为Copen计划只是个开始。”

　　Other carmakers are watching closely.

　　其他汽车生产商也在密切关注此项服务。

　　Generally, personal customisation is available only where money is no object—on cars such as Rolls-Royces and Ferraris.

　　一般来说，个人定制仅面向买得起劳斯莱斯、法拉利的不差钱的买家。

　　But 3D printers change the economics of production.

　　但是3D打印机改变了这一生产的经济运作机制。

　　Since software, rather than skilled craftsmen⁹ working in wood or metal, is behind the process, changes can be made easily and cheaply; traditional machine tools used in mass-production factories make design alterations¹⁰ expensive and slow.

　　因为3D打印是由软件操作整个过程，无需能工巧匠在木板或者金属板上作业，所以更改设计简单又廉价；反之，用于大批量生产工厂的传统机床使得设计变更，既昂贵又费时。

　　And 3D printing saves on retooling¹¹ costs to make small runs of parts (and spares if they suffer damage later) .

　　除此之外，3D打印还可以节省制作小批量部件（以及之后遇损的替换备件）的工具更换成本。

　　The aerospace¹² industry is already well advanced in using 3D printers for custom parts.

　　航空航天工业早已开始使用3D打印机来定制配件了。

　　Airlines often specify¹³ customised fittings for the interiors of their aircraft; Airbus prints internal cabin fittings for some variants¹⁴ of its new A350XWB commercial jet, for instance.

　　航空公司经常为他们的飞机内部指定定制化配件。例如，空中客车公司的新型A350XWB商用飞机各变体的机舱内部配件就是打印的。

　　Specialised parts are 3D-printed for racing¹⁵ cars too, but until Daihatsu’s move, mainstream¹⁶ carmakers have mainly used 3D machines to make prototype vehicles rather than production parts.

　　赛车也使用了3D打印的专门配件，但是在大发公司实施这一举措之前，主流的汽车制造商还是主要将3D打印机用于制造原型车，而非生产部件。

　　Local Motors, a tiny Arizona company, shows where things may head next.

　　亚利桑那州的一家小公司洛克汽车公司 展示了3D打印的前景。

　　It prints substantial parts for a variety of vehicles using “large-area” 3D printers that can cope with bigger jobs than standard machines.

　　它使用比起标准机械更能适应大量生产的“大面积”3D打印机，为各类车型印制了大量部件。

　　Local Motors prints cars using a blend of plastic and lightweight carbon fibre.

　　洛克汽车公司使用塑料和轻量级碳纤维的混合材料来打印汽车。

　　One of its vehicles, the LM3D roadster, is 75% printed.

　　其生产的LM3D敞篷小跑有75%都是打印出来的。

　　The firm’s latest creation is an autonomous¹⁷ electric minibus which can carry 12 passengers.

　　这家公司的最新发明是一款可以容纳12位乘客的无人驾驶电动小巴。

　　Local Motors reckons that the use of 3D printing will make it possible to produce vehicles to individual designs in microfactories anywhere in the world to cater¹⁸ to local motoring tastes.

　　洛克汽车公司称，3D打印将使世界上任何一家微型工厂都可以生产私人定制的汽车来迎合当地汽车市场需要。

　　This would represent a return to an earlier age of motoring when coach builders would be engaged to design and fabricate bespoke¹⁹ bodies for Bugattis, Duesenbergs or Rollers.

　　这也代表着我们会像汽车时代早期一样，长途汽车制造商将重新参与到布加迪、杜森博格、劳斯莱斯等定制车身的设计和制造中去。

　　The wheel is turning back.

　　历史的车轮正在回转。

分享到：