In the early 1980s, engineer Chuck Hull approached his boss with an idea: to develop a machine that printed objects in three-dimensional shapes. His manager discouraged him — after all, the company produced ultraviolet lamps, not Star Trek-like replicators.
Though what at the time probably seemed to many people like a gadget out of a far-fetched science fiction movie, Hull suggested a new way to use the UV technology. The engineer realized that he could use UV light to etch plastic layers into any desirable shape and then stack these layers to create a 3D object, quickly transforming computer designs into working prototypes.
Soon thereafter, the engineer was given a little lab to play around in during his free time. In true Maker fashion, Hull experimented for months using his own with a plastic-y substance, otherwise known as photopolymers. For those unfamiliar, these are typically acrylic-based materials that remain liquid until hit with the UV light, which would then instantly turn solid. Then one night, Hull experienced his own Eureka moment. And just like that, the process of “stereolithography” was born.
“It’s really blossomed just in the last few years — in the sense of really rapid growth and recognition. There’s a lots of things that contributed to that, I think: a lot of the medical applications catch peoples’ imagination; certainly the Maker Movement, with low-cost machines getting hobbyists interested in inventing and building using 3D printing,” Hull recently explains in a CNN interview.
By the mid-1980s, the “printer” had evolved into a working product, albeit one with a price tag of hundreds of thousands of dollars. After patenting the invention in 1986, he founded 3D Systems in attempt to commercialize his newly-discovered method of production. Given the size and weight of the printer, Hull needed to create home movies to showcase the groundbreaking technology to executives. (And kids, that was on VHS tapes…)
Luckily, the Maker eventually raised $6 million in funding from a Canadian investor, in addition to some customers. The first commercial product came out in 1988 and proved an immediate showstopper throughout the automotive, aerospace and medical industries.
“At the individual level, I think there’s a great kind of pent up need: we’ve got into the computer age and everything is on a screen or remote, we’ve kind of missed the tangible result. This is a means to convert something on the computer to reality in a straightforward way,” says Hull.
So what was the very first thing he printed? A tiny eye-wash cup, he revealed in the CNN interview.
Now that the technology is becoming increasingly more affordable and easier to use, 3D printing continues to inch its way closer to mainstream. From 3D-printed prosthetics to castles, more Makers are turning to the next-gen devices, many of which powered by AVR XMEGA, megaAVR and SAM3X8E MCUs.
When Hull originally devised the concept, he told his wife that it would most likely take anywhere between 25 and 30 years before the technology would find its way into the home. Well, it appears that prediction was pretty accurate, as the realistic prospect of widespread use of 3D printers is now beginning to emerge. According to Gartner, though mainstream adoption of 3D printers in consumer markets may be five to ten years away, the adoption of 3D printing for prototyping will accelerate through all industries over the next two years.
Now 75 and still serving as CTO of 3D Systems, the company he co-founded, Hull has appropriately been dubbed the “Father of 3D Printing.” 31 years after he first printed that small eye-wash cup using a new method of manufacturing, what the future holds is up to the growing Maker community!
So the next time you start up your AVR powered MakerBot Replicator 2 or ATSAM3X8E based RepRap Ormerod 3D Printer, we have this man and his creative idea to thank.
“The whole premise of this technology has been to foster creativity, and change in product design and manufacturing, and so forth.”
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