Introduction
Additive Manufacturing Before 3D Printers
According to Wikipedia – 3D Printing and additive manufacturing (AM) are synonymous (Two words for the same thing). But I contest that point – given the name, additive manufacturing means to create something by adding material. If we stick with that interpretation, the concept of adding materials to make something dates back 20,000 years to southern China where the first pottery was made. And of course metal casting is an additive process that dates back to 2800BC in Egypt. So by that definition, the idea of additive manufacturing has been around for a long time. But given the context of this class, these seem like trivial / irrelevant examples. That may be true, but I still felt they were worthy of our consideration.
So what about the first machine that executed an additive manufacturing process? Well there are some who claim that Johannes F. Gottwald, and inventor at Teletype Corporation created the first AM machine. This machine is detailed in his patent “Liquid Metal Recorder” in which a device that extrudes conductive ink and uses magnetic fields to cause small deflections in order to control where the ink is deposited. The material (paper) that ink was being deposited on was also movable, giving the deposition device 2 degrees of freedom (IE a 2D printer)
The technology was intended for printing characters on documents – but Gottwald looked to bring the technology to 3 dimensions by making the ink more substantive by using a wax base and printing layer over layer. But what good is a wax part? It’s not a strong material after all. Well my guess is he was looking to use the parts for positive molds in investment casting:
The First 3D Printers
The first documented 3D Printer was created by Chuck Hull starting back in 1983. The patent for his device was filed in 1984 and became commercially available in 1987. There were two large pieces of technology Hull developed in order to make his 3D Printer possible:
Stereolithography
Often abbreviated as SLA, involves a UV (ultra-violate light) curable resin and a directable light source to control what part of the resin is cured. By curing on top of already-cured areas, a 3D object can be created.
The Standard Triangle Language
Hull’s SLA printer needed some sort of file which could describe a 3-dimentional object. The STL file was his creation that served that purpose. Defining it in them most simple terms, and STL file is a list of triangles that define the outer surface of a model. The below code describes 1 triangle (specifically the XYZ coordinate value of each point of the triangle)
facet normal ni nj nk
outer loop
vertex v1x v1y v1z
vertex v2x v2y v2z
vertex v3x v3y v3z
endloop
endfacet
In 1986 Chuck Hull founded the company 3D Systems which began selling the first 3D Printer the SLA-1 in 1987.
Another company that sprung up around this time (1989) was Stratasys. Founded by Scott Crump, their initial product, “The 3D Modeler,” utilized Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) – the process which the printer in our class uses (and was introduced here). Crump and his wife filed for a patent in 1989 for the FDM process and that patent remained active till 2009.
Man there must have been something in the water in the late 80s because new 3D printer ideas were being churned out like hot cakes. I have a theory that I put minimal effort into researching, that the biggest thing that enabled this new wave of manufacturing methods was the popularization of the Stepper Motor. The stepper motor allows for an inexpensive method to accurately continuously control the angle (and therefore the position of anything attached to it). Almost every 3D Printer utilizes stepper motors as it’s primary actuation method. My only evidence to back up this theory is a Google search on how frequently the term “stepper motor” was referenced in literature and it really seemed to have peaked in the 80s.

Anyways – one final technology that made it’s debut in the late 80’s (1989 to be exact) was Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which was discovered by Carl Deckard during his PhD research. SLS works by moving a high powered laser to precise locations and melting the particles to the layer below:
Carl started Desk Top Manufacturing Corp to commercialize his product, and eventually sold the company to 3D Systems in 2001 for 45 Million dollars.
What does a Patent Really Mean?
If you end up in the field of product design – there’s a chance there’s a decent chance that you’ll be involved in patentable work, and even if you’re not, you’ll still have to be aware of existing patents. I found some data on how many patents are granted ever year, and admittedly it’s a beautiful exponential curve.

Patent activity in the USA is showing NO signs of slowing down – so what does that mean for the future engineers? Well, simply put – more and more ideas will be “off limits” unless you license it.
However – I recognize that I have a pretty clear bias so I thought it best to take an opportunity to talk with a friend of mine who has a decent experience with patents:
The Cost of Patents
Non-Polymer 3D Printers
Now I know what you’re thinking – “Wait – this section is page is almost done. Is that the entire history of Closed-Source Printers?” And to be honest – I’d say “Yeah, just about.” Sure there have been several improvements and machines have gotten more accurate, but I would say there’s not much worthy of note that we won’t touch on later. That said the idea of FDM, or a CNC controlled deposition machine has inspired all sorts of off-shoots, which we’ll get into when we talk about the scientific applications of 3D Printers. The first big breakthrough of using 3D Printers for something other then mechanical parts was Wake Forest University’s 3D Print of a functioning kidney in 2003. This research really helped spur interest in Academia to explore alternative applications of 3D Printing.
References
[1] “History of 3D Printing: It’s Older Than You Think [Updated],” Redshift EN, Aug. 31, 2021. https://redshift.autodesk.com/history-of-3d-printing/ (accessed May 6, 2023).
[2] “Timeline of the 3D Printing History – ASME.” https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-the-history-of-3d-printing (accessed May 6, 2023).