Who invented 3d printing technology

As the light beam hardened each layer along the surface, the platform would move down so that the next layer can be hardened. That year, Hull also formed 3D systems in Valencia, California so he could begin rapid prototyping commercially. In , a patent was awarded to Carl Deckard, a University of Texas graduate student who developed a method called selective laser sintering.

With SLS, a laser beam was used to custom-bind powdered materials, such as metal, together to form a layer of the object. Fresh powder would be added to the surface after each successive layer. Other variations such as direct metal laser sintering and selective laser melting are also used for crafting metal objects.

The most popular and most recognizable form of 3D printing is called fused deposition modeling. FDP, developed by inventor S. Scott Crump lays down the material in layers directly onto a platform. The material, usually a resin, is dispensed through a metal wire and, once released through the nozzle, hardens immediately. The idea came to Crump in while he was trying to make a toy frog for his daughter by dispensing candle wax through a glue gun.

In , Crump patented the technology and with his wife co-founded Stratasys Ltd. They took their company public in and by , FDP became the top-selling rapid prototyping technology. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Moreover, these prostheses are more and more optimized and adapted to the morphology of the patient.

Additive manufacturing is bringing new opportunities regarding mass-customization. It was the first high-definition color 3D Printer on the market. The recent years have been very important for 3D Printing. With the FDM patent expiration, the first years of the decade have become the years of 3D printing. Additive manufacturing is then becoming a real and affordable prototyping and production technique for businesses, opening new possibilities.

The technology is forever progressing, just as are the uses of this technology. More and more small and big companies take advantage of the low prototyping price that 3D printing offers, and have fully integrated it in their iteration, innovation and production processes. In , Urbee was the first 3D printed car. Its body was fully 3D printed using a very large 3D printer. Now, the 3D printed car is progressively becoming a reality, and additive manufacturing is taking more and more space in the automotive sector.

Indeed, from the integration of 3D printing technology for the tooling process, to 3D printed car parts, additive manufacturing appears to be quite helpful on many levels, helping to go through brand new challenges.

New 3D printers are being issued regularly, they are more efficient, they print faster, and they give access to new 3D printing materials. If you check the offers of our online 3D printing service, you will find a wide-range of materials from strong and accurate 3D printed resins such as Rigid Polyurethane , to 3D printed flexible plastic , and heat resistant 3D printed metals : everything is now printable, making it easy for companies to find materials adapted to their needs and products.

Indeed, regarding architecture application, 3D printing concrete is now a real thing, and families are starting to move into 3D printed houses. The first family to move into a 3D printed house actually did in The house is square feet, is perfectly habitable and took two days to print. Additive manufacturing is now offering the possibility to create parts for demanding sectors using advanced materials such as extremely resistant and rigid materials, or professional flexible plastics: we call them high performance materials.

It is also a way to implement more sustainable manufacturing using bio-based materials, with a series of Nylon PA11 materials.

BASF and Sculpteo are combining their strengths to offer you these high-performance materials and help you go even further in your projects. Today we have three originals remaining, which are:. Its early popularity was among various industries. They liked it because it offered rapid prototyping of industrial products and designs. It proved to be quick and accurate, but it was also cost effective. For a lot of industries, rapid prototyping technology was checking a lot of boxes, and continues to do so.

Like with all great innovations, 3D printing had to go through a life cycle before it reached maturity. Most good ideas never take off, for all kinds of reasons, but a few do. The good news is that the additive manufacturing AM technology has made it. If we take 3D printing from its origin to the present day, it will look something like this:. Some will say that 3D printers and 3D printing technology is now in its prime. The latter group is most likely correct, as the future potential looks incredible.

This period is from through to It all began in Japan with Dr. It was a public research institute in Nagoya city. It was here that Dr. Kodama published his findings of a fully-functional rapid prototyping RP system.

The material used for the process was a photopolymer—a type of light-activated resin. This was a time when the first solid, 3D printed object came to be. Each print cycle added a new layer to the previous one. As it did this, each of these layers corresponded to a cross-sectional slice in the 3D model.

And you know what happened after that to Dr. Point of interest: Photopolymer is a kind of acrylic-based substance. The exposed photopolymer instantly turns from a liquid to a solid plastic. When news of stereolithography first came out it excited inventors like nothing before it. For them, it meant they had the potential to print accurate prototypes and test new designs much faster.

SLA is special because it allows designers to create their 3D models using digital data files. They then upload these files to the printer to produce real physical, 3D objects, one layer at a time. Now anyone, who had the money, could fabricate complex 3D objects and object parts. SLA was a game changer. This new process took a fraction of the time compared to more traditional methods.

Also in , DTM Inc. SLS works by shooting a laser at a powdered material rather than a liquid. As exciting as these new technologies were, they still had some way to go before they made mainstream news headlines. Complex 3D models, in particular, proved hard to perfect.

All too often, objects would warp as the material hardened. The machines were also expensive. The biggest benefits of 3D printing to architecture seem obvious: designs already exist with every conceivable detail in digital form, so when you want to impress clients or investors, simply click a button and have a gorgeous model on your boardroom table just hours later.

Want to change a beam, reorient a window, or add another story? Redo your drawings, rinse, and repeat. When prototypes have to be made in or near the same factories where final production kicks into gear, it adds precious time to the design and review phase of product development if the designer and manufacturer are located far apart.

A lot of manufacturing workflows already have the means to retool to additive processes. And as the product-design timeline is compressed further thanks to advances such as generative design and the easier transport and repurposing of design files, prototyping and production will happen faster, all at the speed of digital. Early consumer 3D printing also promised to help reduce waste through a little less built-in obsolescence.

And the market for additive manufacturing products and services is expected to almost triple between and Industries such as manufacturing, architecture, and product design are surely reaping the benefits of 3D printing, but some of the greatest growth is expected in the electronics, aerospace, and medical industries. Todd Spurgeon, additive manufacturing project engineer for America Makes , says the electronics industry will see things like custom heat sinks for high-end products, and the aerospace industry will see a larger availability of 3D-printed components that will make their way from higher-end military applications to general aviation.

In the medical industry, as more materials are evaluated for medical applications and insurance companies more broadly recognize additive manufacturing, personalized care will become the norm. Beyond the existing technologies, there is much more on the horizon for additive manufacturing. According to Spurgeon, interesting work is being done in the direct-ink-writing and dense paste material extrusion communities.

For example, research groups are exploring mixing cured photopolymers with advanced material systems such as ceramics and thermosets, which can ultimately be used for things like printed circuits, lower-cost heat exchangers, and nonbulk ceramics.