From a small cup to high-rise buildings: how 3D printing technology has changed

Early 1980s: first experiments

The first 3D printing technology offered Japanese Hideo Kodama in 1981. True, it was then called not 3D printing, but rapid prototyping. Kodama came up with a device that worked according to the stereolithography (SLA) method: a laser irradiated a photopolymer resin, laying out a programmed object in layers. However, he only described the idea, but he could not provide the evidence necessary to obtain a patent.

Around the same time, work on a device for rapid prototyping independently began American engineer Charles Hull and French engineers Jean-Claude André, Alain le Meho and Olivier de Witt. Success was achieved in both cases. In 1984, the researchers applied for a patent. The French were three weeks ahead, but this did not help them - their proposal was considered unpromising, so they did not invest in the development of technology. But Hull was a success, which is why he is considered the inventor of 3D printing.

Hull's first printed piece was a small cup. She reminded the engineer of a tool for instilling eye drops, his wife - a bowl for communion.

In 1986, Hull, along with partners created 3D Systems Corporation. A year later, they released the first mass-produced 3D printer, the SLA‑1. The invention initially attracted car companies: with the help of the device, they printed prototypes of small parts, such as door handles.

Mid-1980s and 1990s: the rise of other 3D printing methods

At the end of the 20th century, several more 3D printing technologies appeared. First - selective laser sintering (SLS). Here, not resins, but bulk substances are used as "ink". Technology author Carl Deckard developed her as a master's student at the University of Texas. Professor Joseph Beeman helped him create the device. The first object printed by the SLS 3D printer is a cube. In 1988, Deckard patented the invention and founded Desk Top Manufacturing.

A year later appeared fused deposition method (FDM). The "ink" in this case is thermoplastic polymers in the form of a filament. They are wound on a coil and placed inside the device. The polymers are then heated and poured into the programmed shape. The author of such 3D printing is engineer Scott Crump. to the idea of ​​it prompted life experience. Crump worked for a company that was planning to make a PCB unloader. But things didn't go according to plan. Prototyping took a long time, as a result, the company missed its chance to enter the market. Then the engineer decided to find a way to speed up such processes. He started experimenting in the kitchen: armed with a hot glue gun and semi-solid plastic gels, he made a toy frog for his daughter. In 1989, he created several models of the device, received a patent and opened a company for the production of Stratasys FDM 3D printers.

The first FDM printer appeared in 1991. Now it's withmost common 3D printing technology.

The following method is direct laser growth (LMD). His came up with researchers at Sandia National Laboratories (USA) in the 1990s. Metal is used here as a printing material in the form of a powder or a wire thread. LMD is used in industry - for example, to create parts. Quite large ones too. For example, the largest 3D printer in Russia with this technology able to manufacture products with parameters of 2.2 meters in diameter and one meter in height. The installation is called "ILIST-2XL", and it was created in Rosatom.

Late 1990s and 2000s: the birth of bioprinting

The prospects for 3D printing in medicine were noticed almost immediately after the advent of technology. The first experiment in this area held in 1999 by researchers at the Boston Children's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Using a printer, they created a bladder scaffold from collagen and polymers. And then they manually placed donor cells from patients on it.

True bioprinting appeared in 2003. The author of the technology is the American bioengineer Thomas Boland. He replaced "ink" on a liquid with real living cells, and used a special substrate as a base for placing them. As a result, he managed to print cells of bacteria and mammals. Technology patent received in 2006 year.

In the same direction in zero worked a group of scientists led by Professor Gabor Forgach. Their NovoGen bioprinting technology was the first to achieve commercial success when Organova was opened in San Diego in 2007 to distribute it. Two years later there released one of the first commercial 3D bioprinters is the Novogen MMX.

Mid-2000s: Building budget 3D printers

For a long time, 3D printers were massive and expensive. Therefore, it seemed impossible to purchase such a device for the home. change the situation decided British lecturer Adrian Bauer. The university he worked at had a £40,000 3D printer, one of the cheapest at the time. But Bauer dreamed of making it even more budget-friendly. In 2005, he came up with the idea for the RepRap, a compact 3D printer that could create most of its parts. Having one such machine, it would be possible to produce many more similar ones.

In the same 2005, Bauer received money to implement his idea and spoke about it on the Web. RepRap is an open source project: any person on the Internet could modify and modify it as they pleased. The concept quickly became popular. In 2008 was released RepRap's first model is the Darwin. It looked like a frame with wires and fasteners. He was not very pretty, but quite functional: he could print some of his parts and other items, such as a car phone holder.

RepRap is not the only such project. In 2006, students at Cornell University submitted Open source 3D printer - Fab@Home. Among the first things he created with it were a silicone watch strap and a small propeller.

Early 2010s: Development of 3D Prostheses

In 2013, puppeteer Ivan Owen created the first 3D printed prosthetic hand. He started experimenting with technology not just out of curiosity. Owen was approached by a woman whose son was born without fingers on his right hand. By that time, the boy was already five years old. At first, the artist looked towards familiar materials like metal and even created the first prototype from them. But soon I realized that the child is growing rapidly, and redoing the hand every year is too laborious. So Owen started looking into 3D printing, asked a tech company for a couple of printers for a good cause, and started modeling a hand on a computer. Everything went well - the hand came out strong and mobile.

Owen did not license the invention. Instead, he posted the project in the public domain so that other people could make a prosthesis for themselves.

Late 2010s: Construction of printed houses

The idea that a large 3D printer would make it possible to build houses faster and less labor-intensive than classic tools, discussed as early as the end of the 20th century. In the 2000s, they began to develop suitable machines and technologies, and in the 2010s, the first printed houses already appeared. For example, in 2015, the Chinese company WinSun built using a six-story building printer. In 2016 in Dubai appeared custom-shaped office: the ability to easily create custom designs is one of the advantages of 3D printing in construction.

In 2017, the first residential buildings built using this technology appeared in Russia - in Stupino And Yaroslavl. And in 2022, researchers at the University of Maine in 12 hours created the first house printed entirely from biomaterials - wood fibers and resins. A large selection of building "inks" is another plus of 3D printing. For these purposes, for example, concrete, sand, volcanic ash and rice husks are used.

What now?

Today, 3D printing is actively used in various fields. With its help, they create clothes, research instruments, implants, and even food. The capabilities of the technology are being actively explored, and it has many prospects. Yes, scientists suggestthat in the future the printer will be able to print directly inside a person, replacing the damaged area of ​​bone or cartilage as quickly as possible. There are already examples of tiny devices for in-vivo applications. To such applies endoscopic robotic printer F3DB, created by engineers from Sydney. And if researchers find a way to program 3D organs so that they fit seamlessly into the nervous and circulatory systems, succeed significantly reduce the waiting list for donor assistance.