Whether it's with plastic, metal, or even living tissue, 3-D printing has been around since the 1980s.It's been used mostly for prototyping.And, so far, it's still cheaper to make most large-volume consumer goods like bottle caps using traditional methods.But, as Miles O'Brien reports, recent advances could launch 3-D printing into a new era.It's the subject of tonight's Leading Edge story, which airs every Wednesday.Just another day in an office park near LAX.No clue to the travelers above that a whole new approach to manufacturing is under way beneath their feet.It's happening at a young startup called Relativity,a team of for-real rocket scientists pushing space technology by pushing 3-D printing technology to its limits.Here, they are printing rockets, nose cone to nozzle.Rockets are the lightest-weight, most expensive, largest, difficult-to-make thing, that really 3-D printing is the optimal solution for.Founders Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone both realized this while working at large established aerospace manufacturers,where 3-D printing has been used for decades to make prototypes or a few parts here and there.They figure technology now makes it possible to think bigger.But to do this, they first had to build something bigger, the largest metal 3-D printer in the world.
自20世纪80年代起，无论是塑料还是金属，甚至是活组织，3D打印技术都可将其囊括。一直以来，它主要用于原型设计。而且，到目前为止，像如瓶盖这样，大批量消费品的生产，使用传统方法仍然更加便宜。但是，据迈尔斯・奥布赖恩报道，最近的技术进步，可将3D打印推向一个新时代。这是今晚《Leading Edge》的主题，《Leading Edge》每星期三播出。这是LAX附近，一个办公园区里平常的一天。对于来到这里的人来说，一种全新的制造方法正在他们脚下悄然进行。这一切就发生在一个叫做相对论的年轻创业公司里，一个真正的火箭科学家团队正将3D打印技术推向极限，挑战空间技术。在这里，他们正在打印火箭，从鼻锥体到喷嘴。火箭是最轻质，最昂贵，最庞大，也是最难做的东西，而3D打印技术真的是其最佳的解决方案。在为众多大型航空航天制造商工作时，创始人提姆・埃利斯和乔丹・努恩就已经意识到了这一点，在那些大型航空航天制造商那里，3D打印技术已经使用了几十年，人们利用3D打印技术制造模型样本，有时也会生产一些零件。他们认为，如今技术让人们得以脑洞大开。但要做到这一点，他们首先必须要建造一个更大的家伙，世界上最大的金属3D打印机。
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