The Chronological History Of 3D Printing

Throughout our research in the Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, my business partner and I realized that there are no concise articles on the history of 3D printing. As the next industrial revolution gets closer and closer, we decided to write a white paper on the past, present and future of 3D printing. In the spirit of open source hardware, let us share our findings. You can either download the PDF of our white paper by clicking here, or just continue reading…

1. Introduction
Rapid prototyping is the process of producing a quick, tangible object from a 3D (Three Dimensional) computer model, generated using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software. Rapid prototyping is often synonymous with additive manufacturing, which is the process of manufacturing the tangible object in layers, from the ground-up. Rapid prototyping is very important in any design field due to its inherent ability to iterate quicker and more often, getting a product to market faster and with higher quality design.

Although additive manufacturing (AM) is the most-widely used form of rapid prototyping, it is not the only rapid prototyping technology. CNC (Computer Numerical Control) mills, for example, can also be considered rapid prototyping machines since they can quickly produce a tangible object from a 3D computer model. However, most people don’t think of CNC mills as rapid prototyping machines because they use a subtractive form of manufacturing, where they cut the object down to size, leaving behind scrap material. For the purposes of this paper, AM will be the state-of-the-art rapid prototyping process described due to its high rate of technological innovation in the recent years (Ghazy & Dalgarno)...