A 3D printer is a machine that builds a three-dimensional object from a digital model by adding material layer by layer under computer control, a process now formally called additive manufacturing. Chuck Hull filed the founding patent for a stereolithography system on August 8, 1984, describing a method of creating a three-dimensional object from a cross-sectional pattern, and the patent was granted in 1986; Hull also developed the STL file format and the digital slicing strategy still used to prepare a model for printing today. Hull founded 3D Systems Corporation, which released the SLA-1, the first commercial 3D printer, in the late 1980s, though Bill Masters had filed an earlier 3D printing patent about a month before Hull's own filing.
Facts
Patent or First-Use Date SignificanceThe 3D printer let a design move directly from a computer file to a finished physical object without tooling, molds or a machinist cutting material away, opening rapid prototyping to small manufacturers and later spreading into custom medical implants, aerospace parts and desktop hobbyist manufacturing. 2 Connections
In Field
Source 3D Printing (Wikipedia)
Invented By
Filed the founding stereolithography patent on August 8, 1984 (granted 1986) and founded 3D Systems Corporation, which released the SLA-1, the first commercial 3D printer; Bill Masters had filed an earlier 3D printing patent about a month before Hull's own filing.
Sources
1. Stereolithography Apparatus Patent US4575330 (Google Patents)
Google Patents / United States Patent Officebibliographic panelQuote, bibliographic panel
Filing date 1984-08-08; Publication date 1986-03-11.
2. 3D Printing (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory, Development and launch sectionQuote, History, Development and launch section
On 8 August 1984 a patent, US4575330, assigned to UVP, Inc., later assigned to Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corporation was filed, his own patent for a stereolithography fabrication system, in which individual laminae or layers are added by curing photopolymers with impinging radiation, particle bombardment, chemical reaction or just ultraviolet light lasers.
3D Printing (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIn Field: Industrial Engineering, Lead sectionQuote, In Field: Industrial Engineering, Lead section
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model.
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