Contents
A little journey through time to the beginnings of 3D printing technology
Nowadays, additive manufacturing has long been an integral part of industrial production. Up until a few years ago, of course, things looked very different. We took this as an opportunity to give you a brief overview of the history of 3D printing technologies.
How it all began
It all started with an idea from British physicist and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008). This technology visionary had the idea for a 3D printer as early as 1964. In the same vein, Clarke, also known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, also predicted the internet.
The next step followed in 1972. In that year, the character Professor Bienlein in the comic “Tim und Struppi und der Haifischsee” invented one 3D photocopy machine. At the time, of course, this still seemed like an inspiring vision of the future.
A vision becomes reality
It was not until 1980 that this previously abstract idea began to take concrete form. That’s when it started Charles “Chuck” Hull (*1939), an American inventor and engineer, with the construction of the first stereolithography system. It is not for nothing that Hull is now considered the “father of 3D printing” – and stereolithography as the “mother of all 3D printing processes”.
This project finally took concrete form with the idea of using UV light to solidify liquid plastic. Finally, on August 8, 1984, Hull filed for a patent on stereolithography, which was released on March 11, 1986.
However, it was still a few years before the first stereolithography (SLA) printer would finally hit the market in 1987.
Other 3D printing processes are emerging
Finally, in the late 1980s, 2 other major 3D printing technologies emerged.
The Selective laser sintering (SLS printing) was patented in 1986 by Carl R. Deckard. The SLS process can now safely be considered the most frequently used additive process.
3 years later, in 1989, Scrott Crump applied for a patent for the FDM process. FDM stands for Fused Deposition Modeling, also known as melt layering.
3D printing becomes marketable
However, it was not until around 2010 that 3D printing technologies became widespread in industrial production. On the one hand, this fact can be explained by the increasing technical sophistication of the additive processes. In addition, on the other hand, during this time the patents phased out on the most important 3D printing processes. This meant that the inventors did not have to pay the high patent fees.
Learn more about the most important 3D printing processes and their peculiarities on our website.
to materials
