Origins of 3D Printing Episode 2: The First Real 3D Printers (1981–1992)
- Team 3DGT
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
Series: The Origins of 3D Printing — Episode 2
From idea… to repeatable machines
In Episode 1 we looked at the concept behind 3D printing — the leap from “instructions” to “objects” — and the pile of foundations that had to exist before anything could be built in layers on purpose.
In Origins of 3D Printing Episode 2, we’re looking at the early pioneers, key patents, and the moment 3D printing becomes repeatable — not just a clever one-off.
This instalment is about what happened, roughly when, and why it mattered.
Community Corner: the fiction that nailed it
Before we dive into patents, a few replies to Episode 1 deserve a little spotlight — because they underline a theme that runs through the whole history of 3D printing:
Ideas show up in stories first… then reality spends a few decades catching up.
Nigel went straight to Jules Verne, calling out the “aerial screw” idea (long before rotorcraft became practical) and Verne’s role in shaping early spaceflight imagination.
Andy brought in the original Back to the Future optimism — and the mix of “still fiction” (hoverboards, time travel) vs “we actually got it” (self-lacing shoes).
Jon mentioned electric cars as the one that would’ve been genuinely mind-blowing to see as a kid — and also pointed out how many everyday technologies weren’t predicted in the way fiction imagined them.
The “AI assistant you talk to” idea came up too — the kind of thing fiction has shown for years as characters like KITT (Knight Rider) or JARVIS (Iron Man): not an app-filled phone, but a conversational assistant that just does the job.
Question to keep in the back of your mind while reading this episode:
When a technology becomes real… what had to exist first for it to stop being a story and start being a product?
1) 1981: Photopolymer layering shows up in research (Kodama)
One of the earliest widely-cited technical descriptions of “3D printing logic” comes from Japan.
In 1981, Hideo Kodama published work describing an automatic method to make 3D plastic models using a photo-hardening polymer — building the object in layers by selectively curing material with light.
Even without the polish of later machines, the core workflow is already there:
controlled curing → thin layers → stacked geometry
This matters because it’s a clear sign that the “layers” idea had moved beyond imagination and into technical method.
2) 1984: A French patent that reads like the future
Around the same time, a French team (Alain Le Méhauté, Olivier de Witte, Jean-Claude André) filed a patent describing layered manufacturing using radiation to solidify material.
If you read those early descriptions with modern eyes, you can see the shape of vat photopolymerisation thinking forming — a vat of resin cured in layers: selective solidification, repeated in layers, controlled by a system.
Important context: early innovation is messy. Multiple groups often reach similar concepts because the surrounding technology (computing, materials, control systems) is finally good enough to support the same “next step”.
3) 1984–1986: Chuck Hull and SLA resin printing
If there’s one name most public timelines attach to the “birth” of modern 3D printing, it’s Chuck Hull — not because he was the only pioneer, but because stereolithography becomes a clear, repeatable process that successfully commercialises.
SLA (stereolithography) is a resin-based method where light cures liquid photopolymer resin layer by layer, creating solid cross-sections that build into a full 3D part.
Why SLA was such a big deal:
it created a practical bridge between CAD (computer-aided design) and physical prototypes
it made complex shapes feasible without traditional tooling
it helped establish additive manufacturing as a serious rapid prototyping tool
This is also where the “ecosystem” starts to matter: once people can reliably make parts, they need reliable ways to move models between software and machines.
Which leads neatly to…
4) 1987: STL — the quiet file format that changed everything
A 3D model isn’t helpful unless a machine can understand it.
One of the big enabling steps was the introduction and adoption of the STL file format (developed at 3D Systems for early stereolithography workflows).
STL describes a 3D surface using lots of small triangles. It sounds boring… until you realise triangles made 3D geometry portable and computable across different tools.
Why it still matters today:
export quality affects how smooth curves look
“triangle soup” is why some models behave beautifully and others behave like they were designed in a hurry at 2am
slicing decisions still depend on the quality of the geometry you start with
So yes: some of the most important history isn’t a machine. It’s a file format.
5) Late 1980s: SLS brings powder-bed printing into the story
Another major branch emerges with SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) — a powder-based 3D printing method where a laser selectively fuses powder layer by layer to build a part.
Instead of curing a vat of resin, SLS builds parts by selectively fusing powder in layers.
The problem SLS is trying to solve is different to SLA:
how do we produce stronger, more functional parts
with complex geometry
without relying on liquid resin behaviour?
Powder-bed thinking later becomes a core route into industrial additive manufacturing, including materials and performance ranges that hobby systems simply don’t target.
6) 1989–1992: FDM / FFF — the method most people now picture
Now we arrive at the branch most customers picture when they hear “3D printing”: material extrusion.
This is where thermoplastic filament is melted and extruded in controlled paths, layer-by-layer, to build a part. You’ll often hear this called FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) or FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication).
A quick terminology sanity check:
FDM is a trademarked term (you’ll still hear it used casually as shorthand)
FFF is a common generic term for the same style of printing
standards and technical documents often call it material extrusion
In plain English: it’s the “very precise, very controlled hot plastic” approach — and it’s the world we live in day-to-day at 3DGT.
7) Why this history still matters to 3DGT (even though we use FDM/FFF)
We’ll be blunt: in the shop, we’re not switching between SLA, SLS and metal powder systems like a sci-fi vending machine.
At 3DGT, we use FDM/FFF (material extrusion) printers, so our printing method is largely fixed.
But the history still matters because it explains why certain outcomes happen — and what levers we can actually pull to get the best result in the FDM world:
choosing the right material for the job (strength, temperature resistance, flexibility, finish)
designing parts with sensible tolerances
picking the best orientation (strength vs surface finish vs support marks)
slicing choices that affect real-world performance (walls, infill, layer height, supports)
So while we’re not picking between resin vs powder vs extrusion for every job, we are choosing the best way to make this part succeed on this method.
That’s the practical side of “origins”: the early process families shaped the trade-offs we’re still working with today.
Mini timeline (quick reference)
1981 — Kodama publishes early photopolymer layer fabrication method
1984 — French patent describes layered solidification using radiation
1984–1986 — Hull’s stereolithography patent and commercialisation steps
1987 — STL introduced in early stereolithography workflows
Late 1980s — SLS foundations become established
1989–1992 — FDM/FFF foundations appear and become widely commercialised
This week’s questions (Episode 2)
Pick one, or answer all if you’re feeling brave:
What’s the biggest positive OR negative impact that “fiction-turned-real” technology has had on society?
What imagined future tech still feels out of reach, but you want to see in your lifetime?
What future tech genuinely worries you, and why?
We’ll pull a few answers into Episode 3.
Next in the series (Episode 3)
From labs to desktops: how costs fell, communities formed, and 3D printing escaped industrial prototyping to land on workbenches and shop counters.
Glossary (quick and painless)
Additive manufacturing: the umbrella term for 3D printing — building objects by adding material in layers.
CAD (Computer-Aided Design): software used to create or edit 3D models.
Slicing: turning a 3D model into thin layers and toolpaths a printer can follow.
SLA (Stereolithography): resin printing where light cures liquid resin layer by layer.
Photopolymer: a resin that hardens when exposed to certain wavelengths of light.
SLS (Selective Laser Sintering): powder-based printing where a laser fuses powder layer by layer.
FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling): a common name for filament extrusion printing (often used as shorthand; originally trademarked).
FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication): a generic term for filament extrusion printing.
Material extrusion: the standards/technical term for FDM/FFF-style printing.
STL: a common 3D file format that approximates surfaces using triangles.
Vat photopolymerisation: resin printing where a liquid resin is cured in a vat, layer by layer (includes SLA-style processes).
Sources & further reading
Primary patents / early technical sources
Deckard, Carl R. et al. US4863538A — selective laser sintering (SLS)
Crump, S. Scott. US5121329A — material extrusion / FDM origins
Le Méhauté / de Witte / André — French layered fabrication patent (FR2567668A1)
Kodama, Hideo (1981). Automatic method for fabricating a three-dimensional plastic model with photo-hardening polymer.
Standards / terminology
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