3D Printing is not a new term. The first incarnation of this technique was first patented in 1984, but at the time it was commercially unviable, and "lacked business perspective".
By the mid 1990s the concept was still being explored. In 1997 Cristina H. Amon from Carnegie Mellon University published a paper about "Shape deposition manufacturing with microcasting". But it was less than a decade ago that the term"3D Printing" started to become common knowledge.
In 2009 it got traction, even Jay Leno started to use a 3D Printer to replace old car parts:
But by that time 3D printing was expensive and not widely available.
Jay Leno's setup was about $18,000 USD and it consisted of:
The NextEngine scanner $2,995 (at the time) and the Dimension uPrint Personal 3D printer $15,000 (at the time).
Fast forward a decade and in 2009 3D Printing evolved so much that you could get a custom made design of your own printed in Stainless Steel, it still was expensive but not as much as before. It was about $10 per square centimeter.
Just a few years after that 3D printing started
The possibilities are endless, you can print "impossible things" such as these mind-blowing Interwoven Gears:
You can print anything; from household items (and save money), a futurist-looking solar clock ("Digital Sundial"), or maybe a personalized tie-bar =) in matter of minutes:
Even some have printed weapons.
It became so common that in 2014 Amazon launched a 3D Printing Store "which allows customers to customize and then purchase "more than 200 unique print-on-demand products." (Via Gizmodo)
A study conducted in 2013 by Michigan Technological University showed that a 3D printer can pay for itself in less than a year (the printer cost was calculated to be around $2,000 USD). And now they are less than $1,000 USD. Thats a big incentive to give 3D Printing a try!
What do you think about 3D printing? Have you tried it? Please let me know in the comments below.
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