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3D打印制作标志性跑车的复制品

Cars with parts made by 3D printers are already on the road, but engineers are still learning about this new technology. While testing the possibility of printing an entire car, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy recently created an electric-powered replica¹ of an iconic sports roadster.

用3D打印零部件组装的汽车已经上路，但是工程师们仍然在研究这项新技术。在测试打印整车可能性的同时，美国能源部的研究人员最近创作了一辆电动的标志运动跑车的复制品。

AC Cobra, also known as Ford²/Shelby Cobra, is an Anglo-American, two-seater sports car, manufactured intermittently³ since 1962. It competed in a number of road races but, because it was so expensive, it never sold in large numbers.

“AC眼镜蛇”，也叫做“福特/谢尔比眼镜蛇”，是一款英美式双座跑车；自1962年以来曾断断续续生产。它曾经参加许多次路赛，但是由于造价太昂贵，从来没有大量出售。

Attempting to bring it back as a retro sports car, Ford unveiled a modernized⁴ version at the Detroit Auto⁵ show in 2004.

为将这款车做成怀旧型跑车，福特公司在2004年底特律车展上，推出了一个现代化的版本，

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy recently displayed yet another version, this time with electric propulsion and a plastic body printed in a 3D printer.

美国能源部的研究人员最近展示了另外一个版本，这一次带有电力推进和3D打印的塑料车身。

Robert Ivester of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office says the goal wasn't to build a Cobra. Instead, researchers wanted a way to test several things relevant to printing large-scale objects.

能源部先进制造办公室的罗伯特?艾夫斯特表示，他们的目的并不是要制造一辆“眼镜蛇”。相反，研究人员是想测试与3D打印大型物件相关的几个问题。

“The capability⁶ to balance thermal⁷ loads was an important one, the ability to achieve very, very high-quality, professional-grade surface finish, the ability to custom design around components⁸ that we were going to put in. So, this example has one motor and battery but we could relatively⁹ easily change over to a completely different motor and battery, power train, suspension system, because of 3D printing," said Ivester.

他说: “平衡热负荷的能力是一项很重要的问题；实现非常、非常高品质和专业级表面光洁度的能力；以及自定义设计零部件环境的能力是其它几项问题。因此，这个样品车有一个马达和电池；有了3D打印技术，但我们可以比较容易地将其改变为完全不同的电机、电池、传动系统和防震系统。”

The flexibility¹⁰ of 3D printing proved to be a great advantage. Ivester says the car was built in six weeks by a group of six people at the Oak Ridge¹¹ National Laboratory, in Tennessee.

3D打印技术的灵活性是一个很大的优势。艾夫斯特说，这辆车是由田纳西州橡树岭国家实验室的六个人用了六个星期制作的。

"It’s printed in about six pieces – there's one piece that's the core chassis¹² and mechanical structure. And the front end and the back end of the body were each produced in a couple of pieces that were joined to each other and then bolted on to the chassis," he said.

他说:“它被印成大约六块---有一块是核心的底盘和机械结构。而车身前端和后端各自制成两块，然后两块相互连接，用螺丝固定在底盘上。”

During tests at the National Transportation Research Center, the car reached 128 kilometers per hour, with acceleration¹³ of about eight seconds to 100 kmh. Not quite as fast as cars on the road today but respectable. The real value of 3D printing is its speed, and versatility¹⁴.

在国家运输研究中心进行测试期间，这辆车达到了128公里的时速。大约8秒钟可提速到100 公里。虽然不如目前道路上跑着的车快，但是还是相当不错的。3D打印技术的真正价值是其速度和灵活性。

One of the most important advantages of large-scale 3D printing for the automotive industry could be the manufacture of molds and dies for sheet metal car body parts, usually a critical production bottleneck¹⁵.

对汽车工业来说，大型3D打印技术最重要的优点之一，可能是模具制造和车身部件的钣金制造；而这通常是关键的生产瓶颈。

“With a metal mold they’re going to start from a monolithic¹⁶ metal block and machine away all the pieces that they don’t need. And the finishing process just takes long. So the typical response time for an automotive scale mold is at least nine months. And we can do it in 48 hours with printing," said Ivester.

美国能源部的艾夫斯特说:“利用金属模具，他们从单片金属块开始，用机器去掉不需要的部分。最后的加工工序需要很长时间。所以汽车大型模具的典型反应时间为至少九个月。我们可以利用3D打印技术在48小时内完成。 ”

Ivester says his department is now researching whether 3D printing of molds and dies could be used to build parts for wind turbines.

艾夫斯特表示，他的部门目前正在研究是否可以使用3D打印模具和钣金，来制造风力涡轮机零件。