In the eyes of many people, 3D printing is a printer that can print three-dimensional objects. Just like the animation "Ma Liang" that we saw when we were young, whatever we want in our minds, a brush can become a reality. It's just that Ma Liang's brush is just a utopian wish. The advent of 3D printers can fulfill the wish of "Ma Liang's magical pen".
We were pleasantly surprised to see from the news that NASA used 3D printing technology to manufacture the entire imaging telescope, Local Motors produced the first 3D printed car and successfully put it on the road, and Pi-Top became the world’s first 3D printed notebook. Computers, General Electric has used 3D printing technology to improve the efficiency of its jet engines, and 3D printers from American 3D Systems can print candies and musical instruments... Does it seem omnipotent?
In fact, the international professional name for 3D printing is "additive manufacturing." 3D printing is printing piece by piece, and then superimposed together to become a three-dimensional object. To put it simply, the points are piled up into faces, and then the faces are piled up into entities.
So, where does this "self-contained light" 3D printer come from? Where do you want to go?
The concept of 3D printing appeared as early as the end of the 19th century. In 1892, American scholar Blanther first proposed the idea of using cascading molding to make topographic maps in public. This idea of stacking thin layers to make three-dimensional objects is also the core manufacturing idea of 3D printing.
However, it was not until 1984, 92 years later, that Michael Feygin proposed the layered object manufacturing technology (Laminated Object Manufacturing, LOM for short). LOM used thin sheet materials, lasers, and hot melt adhesives to make objects. Feygin formed Helisys in 1985, trying to commercialize and industrialize LOM. It took five years to develop the first commercial model LOM-1015 around 1990.
However, only two years later, in 1986, the American Charles W. Hull pioneered a unique way and invented the stereolithography technology (Stereo Lithography, SLA) was granted a patent. Hull has also developed the now-common STL file format. In the same year, Charles W. Hull established 3D Systems, and in 1988 launched the first commercial printer SLA-250 for the public, surpassing Helisys in two years.
Also in 1988, a new 3D printing technology was developed. Scott Crump invented a cheaper 3D printing technology: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, and established Stratasys in 1989. Stratasys launched the first FDM-based technology after 3 years of establishment (1992). The 3D industrial printer marks the commercial stage of FDM technology. Two giants in the field of 3D printing have begun to emerge.
In 1989, C. R. Dechard of the University of Texas at Austin invented the SLS (selective laser sintering) technology. SLS technology is to preheat the powder to a temperature slightly lower than its melting point, and then flatten the powder, use a laser beam under computer control to selectively sinter layer by layer according to the information of the layered cross section, and then remove it after all sintering. Excess powder, and finally get sintered parts.
In 1992, DTM launched the commercial production equipment Sinter Sation of the SLS process.
In 1993, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Emanual Sachs obtained the 3DP (three dimension printing, three-dimensional printing) technology patent, which uses powdered materials such as ceramic powder and metal powder. The difference from SLS is that the material powder is not sintered. Connected, but through the nozzle with adhesive (such as silica gel) to bond the powder into shape. It was licensed to Z Corporation in 1995 (acquired by 3D Systems in 2012).
In 1995, the German EOS company released the direct metal laser sintering technology DMLS (direct metal laser sintering) that can directly use metal printing and the printer EOSINT M 250, which is a breakthrough in 3D printing materials.
In 1996, 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Z Corporation (hereinafter referred to as ZCorp) each launched a new generation of rapid prototyping equipment. Since then, rapid prototyping has become more popularly called "3D printing."
In 1998, Optomec successfully developed LENS laser sintering technology.
In 2000, Objet updated its SLA technology, using integrated ultraviolet light sensing and droplet jet technology to greatly improve manufacturing accuracy.
In 2001, Solido developed the first generation of desktop 3D printers.
In 2005, Z Corp launched the world's first high-precision color 3D printer Spectrum Z510, making 3D printing brilliant and colorful ever since.
In 2008, Adrian Bowyer, a senior lecturer at the University of Barn in the United Kingdom, initiated the open source 3D printer project in 2005-the first open source desktop 3D printer RepRap was released, with the purpose of developing a self-replicating 3D printer. The goal of the project is to democratize industrial production so that everyone around the world can print RepRap assemblies at low cost, and then use the printer to make daily necessities.
In 2009, Bre Pettis led the team to found the famous desktop 3D printer company ─ MakerBot, MakerBot printer originated from the RepRap open source project. MakerBot sells DIY kits, and buyers can assemble the 3D printer by themselves.
In December 2010, Organovo, a regenerative medicine research company focusing on bioprinting technology, disclosed the first data resource for printing complete blood vessels using bioprinting technology.
In 2011, the world's first 3D printed airplane, the world's first 3D printed car Urbee, the world's first 3D chocolate printer, 14K gold and standard sterling silver material printing 3D printers, developed and manufactured one after another.
In September 2012, Stratasys and Israel’s Objet, the two leading 3D printing companies, announced their merger. The combined company name will still be Stratasys, further establishing Stratasys’ leadership in the rapidly growing 3D printing and digital manufacturing industry. In the same year, ZCorporation was acquired by 3D Systems, and the combined company became the first company capable of providing a comprehensive platform with a variety of 3D printing technologies, 3D content and 3D design services.
In March 2015, Carbon3D of the United States released a new light-curing technology-Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP): it uses oxygen and light to continuously eject models from resin materials. This technology is 25-100 times faster than any current 3D printing technology.
On the other hand, in China, 3D printing is still in the technological development stage. At the same time, due to technological limitations, 3D printing is still less involved in new business models. The entire 3D printing market can be divided into upstream 3D printing raw materials, midstream 3D printer manufacturing, downstream 3D printing services, and peripheral technical training.
According to the different raw materials used, 3D technology can be divided into metal 3D printing, polymer 3D printing, ceramic 3D printing, biological 3D printing, etc. Among them, metal 3D printing technology is mostly industrial grade, and its barriers are much higher than polymer 3D printing; while ceramic and biological 3D printing technologies are still mostly in the state of research and development.
All in all, the first generation of 3D printers was born in the middle and late 1980s, mainly to print models, develop molds, and rapid prototyping. The second-generation 3D printers have developed into high-precision functional products in recent years and have been widely used in the aerospace field. The third generation of 3D printers may be born in the next 10 years. Under the background of intelligent manufacturing, 3D printing technology is combined with other advanced technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, robotics, smart materials, etc., to become a number of intelligent manufacturing. A certain part of the platform.