Hideo Kodama researches a liquid plastic that hardens upon light exposure. Gottwald patents the Liquid Metal Recorder device. 1960s – Inkjet technology is developed.
Timeline 3d printing how to#
The more you know about the history of 3D printing, the more you’ll understand its ever-growing potential, how to select the most capable vendors for 3D printing services, and how to ensure your next project is optimized for success. We’ll span the evolution of 3D printing capabilities over the years, and all the way to the breakthrough technologies of today. In this article, we’ll revisit the decades-long history of 3D printing and the many developments it has experienced along the way. Since its early days in the 1980s, 3D printing has evolved from an experimental technology with few applications, to one of the most versatile production methods in the world. We already live in a world of what used to be science fiction thanks to this amazing technology.In recent history, 3D printing has gone mainstream, but its origins date back further than you might think. The history of 3D printing is a story of continuous growth, and it shows. And, of course, they got new effective techniques for prototyping. They also can forget about the struggle of creating new product designs due to rigid customization options available. Now, manufacturers can produce more goods faster than before and at lower costs. 3D printing can help solve many of their problems with ease. This opens wide new horizons for product manufacturers. Machining metal and plastic objects of all sizes is slowly being supplanted by additive manufacturing, due to the latter being cheaper and faster. 3D printed prosthetics have revolutionized medicine. Currently, we have 3D printers that can print copies of themselves, 3D printed electronics, unmanned aircraft, cars, buildings, and the list goes on! Even a working-class person can afford a budget-friendly DIY 3D printer and learn how to operate it. If we showed its current capabilities to a person from 20 years ago, they would be convinced that we’re living in some kind of a sci-fi world. This method not only made the process cheaper but also much faster and efficient material-wise.Īt this point in history, 3D printing has reached previously unknown heights. FDM essentially defined how modern 3D printers work: filament melted by a heating element is pushed out of a small tube, the resin quickly solidifies, shaping objects layer by layer. Its inventor was Scott Crump, co-founder of Stratasys, another 3D printing giant that exists today. The second technology was fused deposition modeling, or FDM, created in 1989. Before SLS, resin curing was only capable of producing relatively basic three-dimensional shapes. In layman’s terms, it allowed 3D printing machines to replicate fine details on plastic objects. The first one was selective laser sintering, or SLS, patented by Carl Deckard in 1988.
They have changed largely experimental stereolithography into what we know as 3D printing today. As the first commercial 3D printers have entered the market, two new major technologies were invented to enhance the process. The end of the 1980s is the age of innovation in the history of 3D printing. In 1986, Hull founded 3D Systems, the first 3D printer manufacturing company, which is a market leader to this day. He patented this technology under the name of “stereolithography”. Just three weeks after Méhautés patent fell through, Charles Hull, a brilliant American manufacturer with a knack for inventions, has come up with a way to cure resin with UV lamps. It failed, again, due to the lack of money.ĭespite initial setbacks, the idea of additive manufacturing persisted. In 1984, a group of talented French researchers, lead by Alain le Méhauté, has independently come up with their version of the 3D printing process. Sadly, the project was dropped due to the lack of funding. Technically, the history of 3D printing started when a Japanese inventor Hideo Kodama patented a system for curing resin with a laser in 1981. The history of additive manufacturing begins, as with any groundbreaking invention, with a desire to make something complex easier.