bosskeron.blogg.se - 1980 animation desk

1993 – 95: ZCorp, Color Jet 3D printing, and maturation The three 3D printing technologies, which are still the three main plastic 3D printing technologies, were alive and kicking. They competed for industrial prototyping contracts, not to be your Christmas present. It is however worth remembering that these machines were behemoths, not the compact and inexpensive desktop machines of today. The next year in 1992, DTM Inc brought out their first SLS 3D printer. Stratasys released the first FDM 3D printer, the 3D Modeler.

For an up-to-date comparison of the two technologies as they are today, check out our comparison of FDM vs SLA.

FDM parts were stronger and more chemically resistant, but SLA parts could be created quicker, and more accurately. This was the first real competition for 3D Systems, as each had the patent rights to two very different 3D printing technologies. The German juggernaut would go on to dominate the SLS 3D printer market, as well as pioneer Direct Metal Laser Sintering in the mid-90s.Īfter the release of the SLA-1 a few years prior, Stratasys released their first FDM 3D printer in 1991. This competition was further exacerbated by the founding of EOS in 1989 in Germany by Dr Hans Langer. The original FDM patent, granted over 25 years ago. 3D Systems and Chuck Hull may have had a head start, but competitors were hot on his heels. Scott Crump co-founded Stratasys in 1989 and filed the patent for Fused Deposition Modeling, probably the most well-known 3D printing technology today. This innovative new technology was then leased to DTM Inc to use. Instead of using a UV light, SLS used a laser to trace and solidify layers of powder polymers. In 1988, Carl Deckard at the University of Texas filed a patent for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology. Stereolithography had competition in the 3D printing space however, with rival processes in development. 1988 – 92: Stratasys, EOS, and FDM and SLS to rival SLA Ideas are easy, executing them is the hard part.

It is therefore arguable that either Chuck Hull or Dr Kodama invented 3D printing, though Chuck Hull is credited far more and rightfully so. Many agree Chuck is who invented 3D printing. Chuck Hull with the first ever 3D printer, the SLA-1. Since filing and obtaining the patents by 1986, Chuck Hull formed 3D Systems and released the first ever 3D printer, the SLA-1, in 1987. His process used ultraviolet light to cure photopolymers. Just three weeks after the French engineers, Charles ‘Chuck’ Hull filed his patent for Stereolithography, with new features such as the STL file format and digital slicing.

The three men abandoned the patent soon after they filed it, citing ‘lack of business perspective.’ In hindsight, I’m sure they’re gutted. They were to pioneer a new manufacturing process that was to revolutionize manufacturing!īut it wasn’t to be. Three years later in 1984, three French engineers named Alain Le Méhauté, Olivier de Witte, and Jean Claude André filed a patent for the Stereolithography process. But who invented 3D printing? 1984 – 87: Early History of 3D printing & invention of Stereolithography Instead, we had to wait several more years for the birth of 3D printing. Writing as Daedalus in the 3rd October 1974 edition of New Scientist.

A joke invention, but this one turned out to work!” - Dr Adrian Bowyer, Founder of the RepRap movement, which will become important further on in 3D printing’s history. “He basically invented stereolithography with a laser, and invented it as a joke. However, Dr Kodama didn’t fulfil the patent application before his deadline and was never granted the patent.īefore this however, there were rumblings and references made to a stereolithography-like process in earlier research paper dating back to the 60s and 70s, and in a 1974 New Scientist column, David Jones, writing under the name Daedalus, actually published a satirical piece that jokingly described the SLA process.

His research involved printing photopolymers using a method which preceded stereolithography, and also spoke about cross-sectional slices of layers which lay on top of each other to form the 3D object. This research was the first piece of literature to describe the layer-by-layer approach so intrinsic to 3D printing. In May 1981, Dr Hideo Kodama at the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute published details concerning a ‘ rapid prototyping‘ technique.