Shapeways: 3D打印重塑製造業

A short subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, Peter Weijmarshausen is building a factory that reimagines mass production. Weijmarshausen is the co-founder and chief executive of Shapeways, a company that lets people design and order objects printed on high-end 3-D printers.

在離曼哈頓中城不遠，坐地鐵很快就可以到達的地方，彼得•魏瑪豪森正在建造一座將重塑“大批量生產”定義的工廠。魏瑪豪森是Shapeways公司的聯合創始人兼首席執行官，這家公司專事讓人們設計並訂購利用高端3D打印機打印的物品。

It's not a new idea, but in the last year 3-D printing has become newly available: In 2007, when he first started the company within the incubator of Royal Philips Electronics, Weijmarshausen would have paid as much as $500 to print a self-designed iPhone case, for example. At Shapeways today, a designer will pay around $20. This promise recently spurred Andreessen Horowitz to lead a $30 million round of funding in the company.

這不算什麼新創意，但是從去年開始，3D打印重新變得炙手可熱起來：2007年，當彼得在皇家飛利浦電子公司（Royal Philips Electronics）的孵化器裏創辦這家公司時，他要打印一個自己設計的iPhone手機殼需要支付高達500美元的費用。而現在在Shapeways公司，一個設計師只需付約20美元就夠了。正是看到了這一前景，近期安德森•霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）領銜向該公司投資了3000萬美元。

It's hard to imagine how a machine could "print" an iPhone case until you've seen it. So, last Friday afternoon a group of Fortune reporters and editors headed out to Long Island City for an inside look a the mass manufacturing technique considered so promising that President Obama called it out in his January State of the Union speech.

在沒有親眼看到以前，是很難想象一臺機器怎麼能“打印”出一個iPhone手機殼的。因此，上週五下午，《財富》雜誌（Fortune）派出一隊記者和編輯奔赴長島市，深入瞭解這項大規模生產技術。人們普遍認爲這項技術前景看好，奧巴馬在一月發佈的國情諮文中還特地對此做了強調。

The Shapeways factory officially opened last fall, but it's still under construction. We passed through the administrative area where a half-dozen Brooklyn designer types were fulfilling orders out to the factory floor where nine machines are up and running so far. When the factory is complete, there will be as many as 50.

Shapeways的工廠是去年秋季正式開建的，目前仍處於在建狀態。我們參觀了行政辦公區，那裏有六名看起來像是布魯克林設計師的員工正在處理訂單。他們將訂單發往工廠，廠裏目前已有六臺機器投入了運行。當該廠建成時，機器總數將達到50臺。

In front of us, one of these hulking machines gives off heat. It's the size of a refrigerator; inside, a rectangle tray the size of my favorite chili pan is being filled layer-by-layer with dust. We push our noses up to the small window to watch: A layer of dust is spread. Then, a laser burns a series of lines into the dust, heating it to the point of almost melting to form the object. It will take 24 hours for this chili-pan size tray to be complete.

在我們面前，一臺體形龐大的機器正冒出股股熱氣。這種機器的大小和冰箱差不多。在機器內部，一個大小和我喜歡的紅辣椒托盤相仿的長方形托盤上，正在逐層注入原材料細末。我們湊近觀察窗細看發現：一層細末正被鋪開。隨後，一束激光在細末上燒蝕出幾條線，把它加熱到接近熔點以形成打印物。打好這個托盤上的東西需要24小時。

For now, the Long Island City factory only prints materials in a white nylon plastic, though that will change in time. Shapeways is able to manufacture in other materials -- stainless steel, sandstone, ceramics -- from its other facilities. The company also has offices in Seattle and Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

目前，長島市這家工廠只用白尼龍塑料打印物品，不過這並不會一成不變。Shapeways在它的其他工廠裏，也能用其他材料打印物品——比如不鏽鋼、砂岩、陶瓷。該公司還在西雅圖和荷蘭的埃因霍溫設有辦公室。

A diagram of the tray's contents hangs to the right of each printer. Weijmarshausen explains that Shapeways maximizes each tray by pairing elements of different customer orders. These diagrams look like a cross between a 3-D sonogram and a katamari. This optimization brings the price down. Once the tray is completed, employees bring it over to a post-production area where they remove all the dust that hasn't been sealed by the laser. The result is a jumbled collection of parts that are cleaned and separated and buffed, much like bone-hunting archeology. Depending on the order, many are also dyed in bright hues.

這種托盤所含物質的結構圖就掛在每臺打印機的右側。魏瑪豪森解釋說，Shapeways通過將不同客戶訂單的要素加以匹配，能充分利用好每個托盤。這些圖看起來像是3D聲波圖和“塊魂”（katamari，一種視頻遊戲）結合的產物。這種優化處理能降低價格。每個托盤打印好後，員工就把它拿到後期製作區域，去掉所有沒被激光封住的細末。最後得到的就是各種拼湊起來的部件，它們被弄乾淨後就被分開並拋光，整個過程很像考古學家在尋找骨骼。根據訂單的要求，很多打印物品還會染上明快的色彩。

The 3-D printing buzz has been a bit overblown this year as companies like Staples (SPLS) begin making them available directly to consumers -- earlier this month The Cube, which is manufactured by 3D Systems (DDD), went on sale for $1,300 through ; it will likely be available in stores starting as early as July. But just as with any first-generation tech products, these printers won't be capable of doing all that much. The fanfare over the world's first 3-D-printed gun is also a distracting sideshow.

今年以來，隨着像史泰博（Staples）這樣的公司開始推出普通消費者也買得起的3D打印機，3D打印熱潮開始受到各界的熱烈追捧。本月初，3D系統公司（3D Systems）製造的3D打印機The Cube在上以每臺1300美元的定價開始銷售；七月就能在實體店買到。但和所有第一代科技產品一樣，這些打印機也沒法隨心所欲打出人們想要的任何東西。號稱能打出全球第一把3D手槍的說法也只是個博人眼球的小插曲而已。

The real potential for 3-D printing will be felt in enterprise -- as companies like Airbus explore using 3-D printing to make, say, airplane parts. That's the bet that fuels Weijmarshausen's ambitions. As big business takes an increasing interest in 3-D manufacturing, the costs of materials will come down. and the machine technology will improve. Customers will be able to order more types of objects in more materials. Today, perhaps it's the iPhone case. Tomorrow, potentially, the phone itself.

3D打印真正的潛力還是有賴企業界發掘——比如像空客公司（Airbus）這樣的企業就會探索如何用3D打印技術製造飛機零部件。正是這種遠景激發了魏瑪豪森的雄心壯志。隨着大企業對3D製造的興趣日益濃厚，原材料成本就會隨着下降，同時打印機技術也會不斷改進。而普通消費者也能買到用更多材料打印的更多種類的物品。今天也許還只能買到打印的iPhone手機殼。未來說不定就能買到打印的手機了。