观点：请不要过度炒作3D打印了

我认为3D打印的确有其迷人之处，但是请不要过度炒作或自我陶醉，甚至因此产生夸大不实的想法。 3D打印的魅力似乎源于几种概念的结合。首先， 3D打印是一种快速又简单的材料添加过程。其次，机器能因应装配需求'印制'出单一零件从而实现自行复制的可能性──这种自行复制的想法以往自发生在生物系统中。 但是，让我们更进一步来看看。 3D打印听来似乎相当奇妙，但我们可以只把它称为3D添加制造吗？在一般情况下，一台可自行打印的机器只能制造出比机器本身小的复制品──就像母亲生出小婴儿一样。一些采用特殊拓墣的情况不在此列，例如能挤压出香肠形子机器的环形机器。 但在传统与一般情况下，我们可以看到可自我复制的机器并不是真的采用3D打印技术。3D打印机可复制出一款元件的复制品，但仍需要其它机器或透过人力来进行组装，才能制造出全尺寸的复制品。 即使这忽略了一个重要的考虑因素：用于3D 打印的原料通常与控制原料(即3D打印机的材料)的材质不同。所以，3D打印机通常用金属与塑料制造，而制造出塑料制成的元件。最后，3D打印的方便性通常会因为材料的强韧度与耐久性而折衷。 3D打印技术能产生出吸引人的产品模型以及3D可视化，甚至是工具箱、齿轮、杠杆等元件，但它也不是万能的。对于大部份工业应用中昂贵的全金属模具以及高强韧度的专用材料制造，仍然需要采用经验证可靠的方法才行。 在制造模型、小型元件、轻型机器与原型方面，3D打印非常有帮助，而且能让学术领域以及具有某种爱好的人也能负担得起小量生产一些复杂形状的元件。但根据我们对于几百年来发展出的材料科学的了解，工程学是一门复杂的学科，3D打印还不至于使这个产业完全转型。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Susan Hong 参考英文原文：Taking the Hype out of 3D Printing，by Peter Clarke, European News Director

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{pagination} Taking the Hype out of 3D Printing Peter Clarke, European News Director There is something fascinating about 3D printing, but I think some of that fascination and resulting hyperbole is misplaced. The fascination seems to stem from the conjunction of a couple of ideas. One is that 3D printing is a quick and easy additive process. The second is the possibility that a machine could "print" the piece parts for its own assembly therefore suggesting the idea of self-replication, something that was previously only associated with biological systems. But let's look a little closer. Would 3D printing seem quite so marvelous if we simply called it 3D additive manufacturing? Also, in the general case a machine that could print itself could only make smaller copies of itself -- just as a mother makes a baby. I am excluding special topological cases, such as a donut-shaped machine that could extrude a sausage-shaped daughter-machine designed to then curl up to form a full-sized repeat of the mother-machine. But in the conventional and general case we can see that self-replicating machines are not really enabled by 3D printing. For sure, a 3D printer could make the piece parts for a copy of itself, but it would still require other machines -- or humans -- to assemble the piece parts together to make the full-sized replica. And even this neglects one important consideration: that the material that is feedstock for 3D printing generally has to be different from the material that is used to manipulate that feedstock, that is, the material from which the 3D printer is made. So, typically 3D printers made from metal (for strength) and plastic make parts made of plastic. A final point that rarely seems to be addressed directly is that the convenience of 3D printing usually comes with a tradeoff in terms of the strength and durability of the material. 3D printing can produce fantastic models and 3D visualizations and even functioning boxes, cogs, levers, and piece parts, but it is not a panacea. For most industrial applications expensive full-metal tooling and specialized high-strength materials fabricated using tried-and-trusted methods are still required. 3D printing is a useful additional technique for creating models, widgets, lightweight machines, and prototypes, and it makes these complex shapes affordable in low numbers in the academic and hobbyist environments. But engineering remains a complex discipline, and that means that 3D printing it is not about to completely transform industries based on an understanding of materials science built up over hundreds of years.