Year 1981: Hideo Kodama at the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute makes a rapid prototyping system that uses photopolymers and a layer-by-layer method to build a physical model.
Year 1987: Charles (Chuck) Hall comes up with stereolithography, also called SLA, and gets a patent for it. Stereolithography is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) that uses a vat of photopolymer resin that can be hardened. In the same year, he started the 3D printing company 3D systems.
Year 1987: The SLA-1, the first 3D printer, is sold by 3D Systems.
Year 1988: University of Texas professor Carl Deckard gets a patent for selective laser sintering (SLS). Selective laser sintering is an additive manufacturing process that uses a laser to fuse and build up powders into a 3D model.
Year 1989: Scott and Lisa Crump come up with Fused Deposition Modelling and get a patent for it (FDM). The same year, they also started the 3D printing company Stratasys.
Year 1992: The first selective laser sintering (SLS) machine is made by DTM.
Year 1999: Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine use 3D printing to make the structure of a human bladder.
Year 2004: Start of the RepRap Project. The RepRap Project is an open-source 3D printing project, and the RepRap is a free desktop 3D printer that can make copies of itself by printing its own parts. Both of these projects made 3D printing easier to use.
Year 2009: FDM patents expire and enter the public domain, driving the cost of FDM printers down.
Year 2010: Bioprinting company Organovo creates the first 3D-printed blood vessel.
Year 2014: The first 3D-printed car, the Strati, is created.
Year 2016: The Chinese National High-Tech Research and Development Program creates 3D-printed vein tissue.
Year 2018: MIT discovers a way to the 3D print glass.
AM (Additive Manufacturing) solutions are being used in more and more situations, which means they can be used for a wider range of applications. More organizations are thinking carefully about how AM can be used for very specific purposes. Rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing have changed the way that industries need to use 3D printing. This includes industrial uses like making parts for rockets, cars, and capital equipment for semiconductors, as well as medical uses like making tools and devices for each patient that can make their experience better.
As we move into 2022, it's likely that AM will continue to play a key role in changing the way manufacturing works and how supply chains work. Because of the pandemic, organizations can't deliver goods and services on time because logistics are taking a long time. Streamlining these tasks can be done by making all of the important parts at the point of assembly or care.