Consumer 3D Printer origins // Reprap Darwin

[Tex Koder]

A bit of history of how and where 3D printers for the general public came from..

 

[SrC]

I gave it my best shot. It's all Greek to me.
I didn't know 3D printing went back to 2007.

 

[Tex Koder]

I gave it my best shot. It's all Greek to me.
I didn't know 3D printing went back to 2007.

It actually went Back even further..
Back to the 1980s..

It's just that the original patents expired and the tech was finally 'released' to the general public...

Originally it was invented by two guys.
They both came up with similar ideas/concepts for 3D manufacturing (they didn't know each other) and started two different companies.

3D Systems

And

Stratasys


Originally catering to military and aerospace ,I believe...

****************

Once the patents expired..
The technology was worked on again.. at first in universities and in their research labs.. One of the kid that help push the tech out to the public was Josef Prusa**

Then when Reprap came out ,back in 2008.. I saw the news but didn't click on what it could really do ,still Very Raw in its design state..

Then around 2010, I saw one in person at the Dallas Makerspace and chatted with the guy who built it. Still VERY rudimentary and RAW...
I wanted to make one of those.. But you had to source EVERYTHING -all the parts and electronic bits yourself,
and somehow find another person to print the 3D bits (that was needed) , filaments (which was rare and hard to find back then.)
And then go try to assemble, calibrate, tune the Frankenstein printer before you can even print anything, SLOWLY...

The guy at Makerspace kinda offer to help.. but I didn't feel I was up for the challenge back then..

It was not until 2012 that I revisit the idea of trying to build one...





**who later created the company -Prusa Printers