【经济学人】3D打印运用到军事啦 | 2016.11.05 | 总第721期

“AMATEURS talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics.” That military maxim’s latest consequence is the adoption by the world’s armed forces of three-dimensional (3D) printing on the front line. It will be a while before weapons robust enough for military use can be printed on demand (though civilian ones can be, see article). But if it is a question of replacing a small but crucial component that has broken—the modern equivalent of reshoeing a horse—then making what is needed to order in this way has huge potential. Moving replacement parts through a long supply chain to a far-flung ship or base can take weeks. And, if a war is on, such convoys make tempting targets. Yet it is unrealistic to keep a full range of spares near the front line. Far better to produce what is needed, when it is needed.

“外行说军事战略，内行说后勤运输。”把军事三维（3D）打印技术应用于前线是这条格言的最新印证。尽管按需打印强有效的军事武器还需时日（民用物品已经可以打印了，见文章）。但是如果一个极小却极其重要的部件损坏了，那么替换这个部件就像给现在给马更换铁蹄一样简单，这使得利用3D打印技术提供所需物质这一做法有了巨大的潜能。从供应链将替换的部件运输到遥远的舰队或者基地需要数周的时间。（期待您的翻译，您可以将翻译留言到文章底部，第二天会有详细解析哦。）

• Spare：n.备用零部件

Having access to a printer can even encourage innovation. For example, the USS Harry S. Truman, an American aircraft-carrier, took two 3D printers on her most recent tour of duty in the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian  Gulf, which began in November 2015. During the eight months she was at sea her crew devised and printed such items as better funnels for oil cans (to reduce spillage), protective covers for light switches (to stop people bumping into them and inadvertently plunging, say, the flight deck into darkness) and also a cleverly shaped widget they dubbed the TruClip. This snaps onto walkie-talkies, reinforcing a connection that is otherwise prone to break in the rough-and-tumble of naval usage. According to Commander Al Palmer, one of the Truman’s maintenance officers, TruClips alone have saved more than $40,000 in replacement parts. The printers themselves, by contrast, cost about $2,000 each. On the basis of his experience using it, Commander Palmer reckons 3D printing will become an important part of the American navy’s supply chains.

3D打印的使用有助于激励创新。例如，美国的Harry S. Truman号航空母舰，就曾在最近的东地中海和波斯湾巡航中（从2015年9月开始）携带两台3D打印机。在八个月航期里，船员们设计并打印了一种更方便的油罐漏斗（用以减少漏油）、一种带有防护盖的电灯开关（防止船员不小心碰到开关，关掉飞行甲板上的跑到显示灯）还有名为TruClip的巧妙的小装置。将其装在对讲机上可以增强信号，防止恶劣的航海条件下的信号中断。军舰上维修部门的指挥官Al Palmer说，单TruClips的设计就在部件更换方面节约了40000美元。相比之下，这些打印机每个只需2000美元。基于3D打印机的使用经验，Palmer认为，3D打印技术将会成为美国航海装备供应链的重要组成部分。

• Aircraft-carrier： 航空母舰

• Funnel：漏斗

• Walkie-talkies：手提无线电话机

Keep your powder dry

固定金属粉

At the moment, only plastic items can be printed at sea. Landlubbing printers can make things out of metal by building up layers of metallic powder that are then melted with a laser or electron beam and allowed to cool into a solid. But printers, like people, get seasick. A ship’s constant yawing, pitching and rolling disturbs the powder before the beam can do its work. This is why a printer of metal ship parts operated by Canada’s navy sits safely on dry land, at the Cape Scott fleet-maintenance facility in Halifax, Nova   Scotia.

目前,海上只能打印塑料物品。而陆地上的打印机可以打印金属物品。陆地打印机通过层层地堆积金属粉末，然后用激光或电子束将其融化随后冷成型。但是打印机跟人一样，也会晕船。由于船不停地晃动、冲撞和起伏，导致金属粉末在融化前就已被冲散。这就是为什么加拿大海军基地把其船体金属部件打印机设在安全的陆地上的原因（Scott海角战舰维修点位于新斯科舍的哈利法克斯城）。

• Layer of metallic powder：金属粉末层

• 注：哈利法克斯在法律上称为哈利法克斯区域自治市（人力资源管理），是新斯科舍省省会加拿大的首府。

In time, however, metal parts may also be printed at sea. The head of engineering at the American navy’s supply command, Captain Armen Kurdian, says his organisation is looking for ways to overcome the problem of instability. Mounting printers on damping platforms that hold them steady by compensating for a ship’s motion could be one answer. Another might be to form the metal “ink” into wires instead of powders, for wire is more easily held in place than a layer of dust is. In this arrangement the laser or electron beams would melt the tips of the wires.

不过假以时日金属部件应该也是可以在海上打印的。美国海军供给指挥处的工程主管——Armen Kurdian上尉说他们部门正在寻求不稳定问题的解决方法。方法之一就是把打印机装到减震台上，这可以抵消船体的摆动。另一种方法就是把金属粉“墨”制成线状，而非粉末状，因为与粉末层相比，导线更加容易固定位置。之后利用激光或者电子束融化金属线头。

• damping platform：减振平台

Nor are sailors the only servicemen who will benefit from 3D printing.China’s army prints both basic items, such as ratchets, and more sophisticated ones, including physical relief maps of local terrain that help soldiers plan operations more effectively than a paper map or screen display could.Israel’s air force prints plastic parts that are as strong as aluminium, in order to keep planes that date from the 1980s flying. AndAmericais advising the governments ofAustralia,BritainandFranceon 3D printing, in order to speed up these allies’ supply chains, says Chris Wood, a captain of marines who works at the Pentagon and is in charge of this joint enterprise.

海军并非3D打印技术的唯一受益者。中国陆军部队在打印一些基本元件（像棘齿）的同时，也会打印一些精密的物件，包括某个地方的实体地形地图（与纸质地图和电子地图相比较，实体地形地图能够更有效地帮助士兵制定作战计划）。以色列的空军打印出了像铝一样延展性强的塑料部件，以便确保上世纪80年代生产的老式飞机的正常飞行。Chris Wood是一名海军上尉，在五角大楼办公，负责这些合资企业。他说，为了使盟国的供给链更加高效，美国正在说服澳大利亚、英国、和法国政府使用3D打印技术。

• Ratchet：n. （防倒转的）棘齿

Captain Wood will also, within the next three months, be supervising the distribution of 3D printers to American marines in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. In October marines at Camp Pendleton in California finished converting a shipping container into a rugged “expeditionary-manufacturing facility” movable by lorry, ship, train or aircraft. In addition to a 3D printer, this contains conventional machining equipment. Another such mobile workshop is under construction in North Carolina. And the army, too, is involved. It has already sent some 3D printers to bases in Afghanistan.

未来三个月内，Wood上尉还将审查3D打印机在欧洲、中东和太平洋美国海军中的分配情况。10月，加利福利亚的彭德尔顿阵营的海军把船运集装箱转打造成了一个坚固的“远征制造工厂”。此工厂可以通过卡车、船只、货车或飞机来运输。除了3D打印机外，里面还有一些传统的机器设备。北卡罗来纳州的另一个此类可移动车间也正在建造中。而且还可以为陆军服务，此工厂已经给阿富汗陆军基地运送了一些3D打印机。

• Container：集装箱

• Rugged：坚固的

For now, like those on board ship, “forward deployed” printers of this sort make items out of plastic only. In their case the problem with printing in metal is not constant movement but grit—for this is a much more sensitive process than printing in plastic. Even that limitation will be overcome, though, according to the United States’ Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The ARL is paying two firms to develop technologies which can turn blocks of metal into printable powder within the confines of a shipping container. The purpose of this is to recycle battlefield scrap into new equipment.

目前此类装在船上的“前线部署的”打印机还只能打印塑料物品。问题的关键不在于船体的持续晃动，而是金属粉末的研磨比塑料品的打印更难把控。不过，据美国军队研究实验室所说，这一局限终会被攻破。它目前花钱请了两家公司来开发可以在船运集装箱里将金属块转化成打印粉末的新技术。此技术旨在回收战场废料制作新装备。

• Deploy：v. 部署

• Scrap：n. 废料

At the moment this “atomisation” process works like an old-fashioned shot tower. Molten metal poured in at the top of a chamber breaks into droplets that cool and solidify on their way down. But this requires a chamber at least six metres high, which is too tall to fit upright inside a standard shipping container. One of the firms the ARL has contracted, MolyWorks Materials of Los Gatos, California, has managed to shrink the process so that it does fit inside such a container. It does so by orienting the chamber diagonally, and employing jets of inert gas to stop the droplets touching the sides before they have cooled. If printers that make use of these solidified droplets can also be made rugged enough to withstand the battlefield, then broken parts themselves will become recyclable, supply chains may no longer need to deliver even raw materials and, the logistics taken care of, more thought can be given to the little matter of strategy.

目前这种“雾化”工程的工作原理和老式的制弹塔一样。它们都是将融化的金属从腔体的顶端倒入，随后形成液滴，在下落过程中冷却凝固。但这要求腔体至少要六米高，而这种高度太高了没法竖直安装在标准集装箱里。与美国陆军研究实验室签约一个公司，洛斯盖多斯材料公司MolyWork已经成功缩短了这个处理过程，以便腔体设备能够装进集装箱中。他们把腔体沿集装箱的对角线方向放置，然后通过喷射惰性气体来防止液滴在冷却前接触腔壁。如果打印机可以利用这些固化的粉滴打印出足够坚硬的能够在战场上使用的武器，那么这些损坏了的部件就都可以循环利用了，这就不再需要运输制作武器的原材料了（以前这是后勤经常关心的问题），所以军队就可以花更多的时间来考虑战略部署——这个小问题了。

• Shot tower：制弹塔

• Droplet：液滴  

• Diagonally：对角线地

翻译 ▍栏目二第三组

审核 ▍椰子

编辑 ▍澜意