We all know about printing. In cyber cafes we have seen how a printing work takes place. When we observe about technology, almost all technologies have seen amazing growth as the years passed. From healthcare to education technology has played a vital role.
Today printing technology is one of the top technology among others. It is the never-ending industry which is witnessing amazing growth year by year, and now its time of 3D printing.
Charles Hull is the inventor of stereolithography, the first commercial rapid prototyping technology commonly known as 3D printing. The earliest applications were in research and development laboratories and tool rooms, but today 3D printing applications are seemingly endless.
In the 90s, many companies and start-ups began popping up and experimenting with the different additive manufacturing technologies. Then, in 2005, Open Source changed the game for 3D printing, giving people more access to this technology.
In 2006, the first commercially available SLS printer was released, changing the game in terms of creating on-demand manufacturing of industrial parts. 3D printing technology is key trend in innovation and technology which is used to formulate prototypes. This technology has been impactful in the biomedical and industrial sectors. None of us thought of printing a real object from a printer, while, it’s a reality now. So, 3D printing is another innovation that’s here to stay.
3D printing is an additive technology used to manufacture parts. It is ‘additive’ in that it doesn’t require a block of material or a mold to manufacture physical objects, and it simply stacks and fuses layers of material. Rapid prototyping’ is another phrase that’s sometimes used to refer to 3D printing technologies. This dates back to the early history of 3D printing when the technology first emerged.
In the 1980s, when 3D printing techniques were first invented, they were referred to as rapid prototyping technologies because back then the technology was only suitable for prototypes, not production parts.
3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which is cutting out/hollowing out a piece of metal or plastic with for instance a milling machine.
3D printing enables you to produce complex shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods. It all starts with a 3D model. You can opt to create one from the ground up or download it from a 3D library.
Today 3D technologies are used in many fields such as medical, manufacturing, and automobile etc.