3D Printing

Chuck Hull, USA, patent 4,575,330 of 1986. Stereolithography: printing objects from UV-cured resin.

Overview

Hull, working nights at a furniture-sunlight-cure shop, patented stereolithography in 1986 and founded 3D Systems. His STL file format is the trade standard still spoken. FDM patents followed Scott Crump's 1989 filing, and expiration waves in the 2010s ignited desktop printers. Aerospace prints fuel nozzles, dentists print crowns, surgeons print titanium spines. The 1986 patent is additive manufacturing's root deed. Prototyping became printing became production.