Additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing, has become the standard bearer of the next industrial revolution. It's clearly different, it's already available to both professionals and hobbyists, and it's sexy in a geeky, 'Star Trek' sort of way. An item is made, layer by thin layer, until it appears almost magically from seeming thin air. Remember the replicator aboard the starship Enterprise?

普遍称为3D打印的增材制造(Additive manufacturing)已经成为新一轮工业革命的旗帜。它明显不同于以往，专业人士和爱好者都可用上，而且带有《星际迷航》(Star Trek)那样的高科技性感色彩。一层一层地，就像是无中生有一样，一件东西就那么神迹般地做出来了。还记得星际飞船“进取号”(Enterprise)上面的那台复制器吗？

Yet additive manufacturing is just one of a number of emerging technologies that are likely to produce major changes in the way many things are made in the years to come. And even additive manufacturing isn't limited to 3D printing. One still-emerging process, called cold spraying, involves blasting metallic particles through a nozzle at such high speeds that they bind to each other to form shapes. By precisely controlling the nozzle, machine operators can build up a three-dimensional metal object like a gear much the same way a 3D printer does. It's as though the object as been painted into existence, and it can be done with even exotic metals like titanium.

但增材制造不过是未来几年有望给很多东西的制造方式带来重大变革的一系列新兴技术之一。甚至增材制造也非仅限于3D打印。一项刚刚崭露头角的工艺名叫“冷喷涂”，就是通过喷嘴喷射金属颗粒，由于速度很高，这些颗粒会相互结合、组成形状。通过精确控制喷嘴，机器操作员就可以像利用3D打印机打印一样制造出齿轮之类的三维金属物体。物体就像是通过喷绘画出来的一样，哪怕是用钛之类的不常见金属，也都是可以完成的。

What else is in store? The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership offers one glimpse into the future. The group, created by President Obama, has identified 11 areas of technology that it believes will play a crucial role in determining competitiveness in manufacturing-and that it believes should be the focus of national research-and-development efforts.

除此以外还有什么呢？奥巴马总统发起成立的先进制造业合作委员会(Advanced Manufacturing Partnership)对未来做了一下展望。该组织划出了11个技术领域，认为这些领域将对制造业竞争力的决定起到关键作用，应当成为全国研发行动的重点。

Here's a quick primer to some of the things it highlighted:

这里简单介绍一下该委员会强调的一部分内容：

Sensing, measurement and process control: Virtually all advanced manufacturing techniques have one thing in common: They're driven by computers working with vast amounts of data. That's why the things that capture and record data, such as sensors that monitor humidity, GPS trackers that fix location or calipers that measure a material's thickness, are so crucial. Just as these types of devices increasingly are what help make smartphones smart, they also enable intelligent, flexible, reliable and highly efficient manufacturing techniques. In a modern factory, sensors not only help guide increasingly nimble machines, but also provide the information necessary to manage the operation of the factory as a whole. Products can be tracked from inception to the point of delivery and, in some cases, even beyond. The moment anything goes wrong in the process-i.e., the humidity inside a spray booth isn't optimum for a paint-a sensor can detect it and issue an alert to the machine operator or even to the plant manager's cellphone.

传感、测量和过程控制：几乎所有先进制造技术都有一个共通的东西：它们都由处理巨量数据的电脑驱动。正因如此，那些捕捉并记录数据的东西才如此重要，如监测湿度的传感器、确定位置的GPS跟踪器、测量材料厚度的卡尺等。这些设备不仅越来越多地用于智能手机的智能化，还使得智能、灵活、可靠、高效的制造技术成为可能。在一座现代化的工厂里面，传感器不仅有助于引导日益灵敏的机器，还提供管理整个工厂的运营所需要的信息。产品从诞生到送达都可以跟踪，某些情况下还可以跟踪到送达之后。在这个过程中，一旦有问题出现，比如在喷漆室的湿度不适宜喷涂的时候，传感器就会侦测出来，向机器操作者发送警报信号，甚至是向工厂管理者的手机发送警报信号。

Materials design, synthesis and processing: New machines will require new materials, and new materials will enable the creation of entirely new machines. The development of coatings, composites and other materials is being accelerated through advances that break materials down to an atomic or molecular level and allow them to be manipulated virtually without the need for lengthy laboratory procedures. Borrowing a page from the widely acknowledged success of the Human Genome Initiative, the Department of Energy and other U.S. agencies launched a Materials Genome Initiative last year. The goal: halve the time it takes to identify a new material and bring it to market, a process that currently can span decades. The technology for lithium-ion batteries, for instance, was first conceived of by an Exxon employee in the 1970s, but it wasn't introduced commercially until the 1990s. Part of the effort involves getting the widely dispersed and cloistered researchers in the field to share ideas and innovations.

材料设计、合成与加工：新机器将需要新材料，新材料将使新式机器的制造成为可能。随着将材料细分到原子或分子层级、几乎不需要经过漫长的实验室步骤就可以进行操纵的进展出现，涂层、复合材料和其他材料的开发正在加快。借鉴人类基因组计划(Human Genome Initiative)取得的广受认可的成功，能源部(Department of Energy)等美国政府机构去年发起成立了材料基因组计划(Materials Genome Initiative)，其目标是将确定新材料、把新材料推向市场所需要的时间缩短一半。目前这个过程可能需要耗时几十年，比如锂离子电池技术是20世纪70年代埃克森(Exxon)的一名员工首次构想出来的，但一直要到90年代才开始商业化。这个计划涉及的部分工作，便是让该领域内散落在世界各处、两耳不闻窗外事的研究人员共享创意和创新。

Digital manufacturing technologies: Engineers and designers have been using computer-aided modeling tools for years not only to design products, but to test, modify and improve them digitally, often bypassing more costly and slower physical testing. Cloud computing and inexpensive 3D scanners (it's now possible to do a simple 3D scan with an iPhone) are transporting these methods out of sophisticated facilities and into the mainstream where they can be used by entrepreneurs. Autodesk makes a fully operational CAD software program called 123 Design that's free and allows individuals to do things that auto makers once required mainframe computers to accomplish.

数字制造技术：工程师和设计师使用电脑辅助的建模工具已经有些年头，不仅用于设计产品，还以数字方式对产品进行检测、修正、改良，常常省略了更费钱、更费时的实体检验过程。云计算和低成本3D扫描仪（现在用iPhone就可以做一次简单的3D扫描）正在将这些方法从尖端实验室里搬出来，使之进入主流，让创业者能够用上。Autodesk制作了一套免费的的全功能CAD软件“123 Design”，汽车制造商一度要用大型计算机才能完成的事情，个人拿这套软件就可以做了。

Sustainable manufacturing: The goal is a straightforward, if not easy one: maximize each atom of matter and joule of energy used in production and waste as little as possible. Energy-efficient manufacturing is a major area of focus here. Manufacturing engineers, for instance, talk about the potential for 'lights out' factories that operate continuously in the dark and don't need to be heated or cooled because they're largely run by robots and other machines. Remanufacturing and recycling may also become more important as smaller, highly automated local factories become more common, and there's more of a priority placed on locally available materials.

可持续制造：其目标即便不好实现，理解起来也还是很容易的，就是将每一丁点物质、每一焦耳能量最大化地用到生产当中，尽可能地减少浪费。高能效制造是其中的一个重点领域。比如，制造业工程师常常会说到“无灯”工厂的潜力，这种工厂在黑暗中持续运转，不需要加热或制冷，因为它们基本上都是由机器人或其他机器操作。随着规模更小、高度自动化的本地工厂变得更加普遍，再制造和回收或许会变得更加重要，本地供应的材料也会更受重视。

Nanomanufacturing: A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, so nanomanufacturing means being able to manipulate materials on a molecular and even atomic scale. Nanomaterials are expected to play a future role in the production of things like high-efficiency solar cells and batteries, and even in biosystem-based medical applications, such as a sensor inside your body that could tell your doctor that your cancer is gone. Future generations of electronics and computing devices may also rely heavily on nanomanufacturing.

纳米制造：一纳米等于一米的10亿分之一，所以纳米制造的意思就是能够在分子、甚至原子层面操纵材料。预计纳米材料将来会在高效太阳能电池板、电池的生产过程中发挥作用，甚至会在基于生态系统的医学应用当中发挥作用，比如在体内安置传感器，可以告诉医生癌症已经消失。未来几代的电子设备和运算设备或许也会非常依赖于纳米制造。

Flexible electronics manufacturing: Tablet computers that bend when you sit on them. Clothing wired to your body temperature so it can cool you off when you need it. Already working their way into the mainstream, these flexible technologies are expected to define the next generation of consumer and computing devices, and are expected to be among the fastest-growing product categories over the next decade. But they require highly advanced manufacturing processes.

柔性电子制造：比如坐在上面的时候会产生弯曲的平板电脑，与体温连线、在你需要的时候提供制冷的衣服等。这些柔性技术已经在向主流进发，预计会定义下一代的消费设备和运算设备，成为未来10年增长最快的产品门类之一。但这需要极为先进的制造工艺。

Biomanufacturing: This field uses a biological organism, or part of one, in an artificial manner to produce a product-like developing drugs and medical compounds. (Cheese making doesn't count.) But it has applications in a wide range of areas, including improvements in energy efficiency and in the creation of new methods of nanomanufacturing.

生物制造：该领域利用生物有机体或生物有机体的一部分以人工方式生产产品，如开发药物和复方药。（生产奶酪不算。）但它可以用到很多领域，比如能效的提高、纳米制造新方法的创造等。

Additive manufacturing: Three-dimensional printers not only hold the promise of achieving high quality at volumes as low as a single unit, but also of opening the door to entirely new designs and material structures and combinations. Printers have been developed that can print over 1,000 materials, including hard plastic, flexible plastic, ceramics and metals. One German manufacturer has developed a process that deposits layers of wood pulp; a San Diego company called Organovo is 3D printing human tissue for use in labs. Some printers can now layer more than one material and can enable smart components to be fabricated with embedded sensors and circuitry, such as hearing aids or motion-sensing gloves. There even is something called a Replicator on the market. It's a system made by Cybaman Technologies, a British firm, that starts by layering a basic shape and then machines the rough object into its final precise and polished form.

增材制造：3D打印机不仅有希望在产量只有一件的时候就能够实现很高的质量，还有希望为全新的设计、材料结构与材料组合创造条件。能够打印1,000多种材料（硬塑料、软塑料、陶瓷和金属等）的打印机已经开发出来。一家德国制造商开发了一套一层层地堆积木浆的工艺， 地亚哥一家名叫Organovo的公司正在通过3D打印打印实验用的人体组织。现在有些打印机可以叠加不止一种材料，还可以将内置传感器和电路编织到智能部件中，如助听器或动作感应手套等。市场上甚至还有一种名叫“复制机”(Replicator)的东西，它是英国公司Cybaman Technologies开发的一套系统，先是堆出基本形状，然后用机器将粗糙的物体打磨成精确、光鲜的成品。

Industrial robotics: Industrial robots can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with repeatable and increasingly fine precision-to hundredths of a second and in less space than is detectable by the human eye. They report accurately on their progress, improve when their performance is tested for efficiency and become more dextrous when they're fitted with advanced sensor systems. (They also rarely complain.) As robots become ever more widespread, they're becoming more economical, too: The expense associated with industrial robots has fallen as much as 50% compared with human labor since 1990, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute. And, with advances in biotechnology and nanotechology, robots are expected to become capable of doing ever more intricate things, like drug processing and growing full-blown human organs.

工业机器人：工业机器人可以每天24小时、每周七天地运转，精度可重复且越来越高，时间上可以精确到几百分之一秒，空间上可以精确到人眼都看不到的程度。它们精确地汇报进展，在接受效率测试的时候做出改进，如果安装了先进的传感系统，还会变得更加灵巧。（它们也很少发牢骚。）随着机器人变得越来越普遍，它们的经济性也在提高：据麦肯锡全球研究院(McKinsey Global Institute)的一份报告，1990年以来与人工相比的机器人相关成本已经下降高达50%。另外，随着生物技术和纳米技术的进步，预计机器人能够做的事情将越来越精巧，如药品加工、培植完整人体器官等。

Advanced forming and joining technologies: Most current mechanical manufacturing processes continue to depend largely on traditional technologies, mainly for metals, such as casting, forging, machining and welding. But experts believe this area is ripe for innovation and new ways of joining a wider variety of materials with greater energy and resource efficiency. Cold forming, for instance, may play a major role as a repair or advanced welding technique.

先进成形与连接技术：当前大部分机器制造工艺基本上还是依靠传统技术、特别是针对金属的技术，如铸型、锻造、加工和焊接等。但专家认为，这个领域的创新时机已经成熟，可以用新的方法来连接更多种类的材料，同时提高能源和资源效率。比如冷成型技术就有可能作为一项修复技术或先进焊接技术而发挥重大作用。