A HISTORY 3D PRINTING

3D printing is a method of creating a threedimensional object, layer-by-layer, using a computer-generated design. It’s an additive process, with layers of material built up to create a 3D part. It’s sometimes known as ‘additive manufacturing’. The technology started out as a way to produce prototypes with no machine tooling, but over the past 10 years 3D printing has evolved rapidly, and has now been widely embraced.

3D printing is a disruptive technology because it has the power to shorten supply chains at a time when disruption is rife. The following are a few key events in the evolution of this technology.

1981

3D printing first documented in Japan

1980s Japan saw a transformation in the economy, with computers becoming mainstream and a place for Hideo Kodama’s rapid prototyping system, which used UV light to polymerise a photosensitive resin. Though Kodama was unable to create a patent for 3D printing, he is generally regarded as the de facto inventor.

1986

First 3D printing patent

For American builder Charles Hull, necessity really was the mother of invention. He needed tiny custom parts made quickly for the furniture he manufactured, so he built a 3D printer that printed photosensitive resin layer by layer. Hull filed the first patent for Stereolithography, also known as the ‘SLA’, in 1986.