DIY: Design And Print It Yourself!

Additive Manufacturing is a term that has been nearly used for decades and can now be seen in the light of day as 3D printing. The manufacturing sector has picked up its pace in terms of technological advancements with 3D printing.

Birth of 3D Printing

In the early 1980s Hideo Kodama of the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute in Japan found a way to produce 3D solid products by printing material layer by layer. However, he failed to get a patent for his discovery as he did not file the full patent specification within the one-year deadline due to lack of funding and it just remained an idea. Further, the General Electric Company and Cilas, in France, also found a way to create 3D printed object but these companies couldn't find a suitable application for the idea and dropped their discoveries. Later in 1986, an American engineer named Charles Hull successfully patented his prototype for a process called stereolithography (SLA). The patented SLA printer