History of 3D printing

…3D printing is a hot topic in the media…today, but it's actually been around since the 1980s.…Let's talk about the history of 3D printing and…how this technology is changing the face of fabrication.…Charles Hull coined the term 3D printing when he…invented the first stereolithography machine in the late 1980s.…This first printer, used a laser to cure resin,…and it was invented as a rapid prototyping technology.…At the time, computer aided design was really taking off, and those…first machines let designers and engineers see their ideas in 3D much faster.…

The next decade saw increasing levels of innovation.…New technology, diverse materials, but the high…costs of 3D printers kept the technology exclusively…in the business sector.…In 2005, Adrian Bowyer started the RepRap project.…This was a movement based on the challenge of building a self-replicating machine.…In this case, low-cost 3D printers that could produce copies of themselves.…The first set of parts came from a commercial 3D printer and…they were designed to connect to standard hardware elements like rods and…