In an interview with the BBC in 1960 sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke was asked to describe his vision of the future. In this interview, he described many things that have come to pass and some that have not. In the last third he said this: “Looking as far into the technological future as I dare, I’d like to describe the invention to end all inventions. I call it the replicator and it’s simply a duplicating machine but it’s a duplicating machine that can make an exact copy of anything. Now, we’re already familiar with perfect copies of printing and of pictures and of sounds, yet the camera and the tape recorder would have seen miraculous to our ancestors and to a medieval monk who in his life perhaps saw only a few dozen books, each one patiently copied by hand. Our present world in which millions of books exist again would have seemed absolutely inconceivable. Can we imagine a world in which objects can be made as easily as today we can make books? Well, don’t ask me exactly how the replicator will work. If I knew I’d have patented it at once.”
Clarke was more known for writing the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, eventually taken by Stanley Kubrick and turned into a movie that you either understand or don’t but what he describes sounds a lot like what a 3-D printer has the potential to do. Clarke would live long enough to see 3-D printing become a reality but not for it to become mainstream.
Something like this was the realm of science fiction, perhaps most famously in Star Trek with its replicator technology, used to create food and many other things out of thin air. The thought of getting a cup of hot Earl Grey tea seemed appropriately placed in the 23rd century but by the time Patrick Stewart was making these requests on camera the technology was actually closer, he would have known.
Of course, it is great to have the idea like Clarke had but to turn that idea into reality is the true job. After all, if Clarke knew how the machine would work he would have patented it. For nearly a decade and a half, this was nothing more than a vision until 1974 when British chemist David Jones laid out the concept of 3-D printing in the New Scientist journal.
It would take into the 1980s before a 3-D printer became a reality. In 1981 the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute’s Dr. Hideo Kodama invented two additive methods that could be used for creating 3-D plastic models using a photo-hardening thermoset polymer and UV exposure. 3-D printing was born. Dr. Kodama wanted to develop a faster and more cost-effective method for creating prototypes in the development industry.
Dr. Kodama filed a patent application but he neglected to file the full patent specification within the one-year timeframe. That allowed Chuck Hull to develop a stereolithography apparatus (SLA) machine in 1983 and patented it in 1986. Hull would go on to co-found 3D Systems Corporation and is widely hailed as the father of 3-D printing. His company is still active today and is one of the largest and most prolific organizations involved in the 3-D printing industry.
Hull was not along in working to develop what would be called a 3-D printer. American engineer Bill Masters filed his own patent and helped to lay the foundations for many of the 3-D printing systems that are in use today. Masters actually holds the distinction of holding the first 3-D printing patent after beginning his work in the 1970s comparing his idea to using a straw to shoot spit wads saying: “When you shoot a lot of wads they begin to take shape. If you can control the direction of the wads and the motion of the device shooting them, you can produce any desired shape.”
Masters founded Perception Systems and used computer-aided design (CAD) to manufacture an object by shooting droplets of plastic to form the object, or Ballistic Particle Manufacturing (BPM). Unfortunately, he was never able to achieve commercial viability with his vision and eventually left his company to focus on building kayaks.
Masters had beaten Hull by three weeks with patent filing but Hull’s vision proved to be viable. His stereolithography (SLA) fabrication system created a cross-section pattern of each of the objects that were to be formed. He developed the STL file format as well as the digital slicing and infill strategies that are the basis of 3-D printing today. His first machine was introduced to the public in 1987 and like a lot of brand new technology, there were many issues to overcome.
SLA was also not the only method of 3-D printing being developed. Carl Deckard filed a patent for Selective Laser Printing (SLS) in 1987 and Stratasys co-founder Scott Cump filed a patent for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) in 1989. Also, that year in Germany EOS GmbH founder Hans Langer developed the laser sintering process.
As the 1980s turned into the 1990s 3-D printing or rapid prototyping was something that few could take advantage of. The systems that did exist were extremely expensive and were geared toward creating high-end highly-engineered parts. They could be found in the aerospace industry, the automotive industry, and the jewelry industry. While the technology improved during the 1990s 3-D printing by the common person was still a dream.
It would take until 2007 for the first commercial 3-D printer to cost less than $10,000 but the goal for actual commercial acceptance was to bring a model under $5,000. One company, Desktop Factory, tried to but failed and was purchased by 3D Systems. It would actually be the open-source movement that would achieve this goal. In 2009 the first commercially viable printer came onto the market with an entry-level printer. While that company failed, the use of open-source software is still present today.
The 2010s proved to be a pivotal decade for 3-D printing. The idea was picked up by many mainstream media channels and growth took off in 2013. At this point, 3-D printers are commercially available at an affordable price for nearly everyone. They have been used to create homes, robotic arms, medical apparatus, aircraft, cars, and even food. Of course, it has not been without controversy as well with the 3-D printing of guns being possible as well. Arthur Clarke’s replicator is very nearly here and maybe something that is found in nearly every home within the next decade. At the very least a 3-D printed product will be found in everyone’s home within the next ten years.