中國離圓珠筆的成功更近了

BBC News – It has sent rockets into space, producedmillions of the world's smartphones and built high-speed trains. But until now, one bit of manufacturinghad perhaps unexpectedly eluded China: theballpoint pen.

BBC新聞 – 它把火箭送入太空，生產(chǎn)出了世界上成千上百萬部智能手機，造出了高鐵。但到目前為止，制造業(yè)一個不起眼的部分或許出乎意料地難倒了中國：圓珠筆。

A year ago Premier Li Keqiang went on nationaltelevision and bemoaned the failure of his country toproduce a good quality version of this seemingly-simple implement. Locally-made versions felt "rough" compared to those from Germany,Switzerland and Japan, Mr Li complained.

一年前，李克強總理在國家電視臺發(fā)表講話，慨嘆中國無法制造出高質(zhì)量的這種看似簡單的用具。國產(chǎn)圓珠筆與德國、瑞士和日本產(chǎn)圓珠筆相比顯得“粗糙”，李克強抱怨說。

The problem was not the body of the pen, but the tip - the tiny ball that dispenses ink as youwrite. It might be something we take for granted, but making them requires high-precisionmachinery and very hard, ultra-thin steel plates.

問題不在筆身，而在筆尖 – 書寫時出墨水的細小圓珠。這可能是我們不當回事的東西，但制造圓珠需要高精度機械設(shè)備和硬度非常高的超薄鋼板。

 

 

Without that ability, China's 3,000 penmakers have had to import this crucial componentfrom abroad, costing the industry a reported 120m yuan ($17.3m) a year.

沒有那個能力的話，中國3千家圓珠筆制造商不得不從國外進口這種關(guān)鍵部件，據(jù)報道每年耗費該行業(yè)1.2億元(合1730萬美元)。

But according to People's Daily, the state-owned Taiyuan Iron and Steel Co thinks it hascracked the problem, after five years of research. The first batch of 2.3-millimetre ballpoint pentips has recently rolled off its production lines, the paper says.

但根據(jù)《人民日報》，國營太原鋼鐵公司經(jīng)過5年研究已經(jīng)攻克了這個難題。第一批2.3毫米的圓珠筆尖最近已經(jīng)下了生產(chǎn)線，該報說。

And once lab tests are completed, it's expected China could phase out pen tip importscompletely within two years.

而一旦完成實驗室測試，中國有望在兩年內(nèi)逐步徹底結(jié)束圓珠筆尖進口。