Additive & Precision Manufacturing

1860s · around 160 years ago

François Willème developed photosculpture in France

The technique used simultaneous photographs from multiple angles to guide carving of a three-dimensional likeness, and is regarded by some historians as a conceptual forerunner of later scan-to-print methods.

1892 · 134 years ago

An early US patent described building layered wax relief maps from stacked topographic contours

The method, granted for making topographic relief models, is cited by historians of manufacturing as one of the earliest documented descriptions of the layer-by-layer principle underlying additive manufacturing.

1945 · 81 years ago

Murray Leinster first described the concept of layer-by-layer 3D printing in the short story "Things Pass By"

The science-fiction writer imagined a 'constructor' that fed plastic through a moving arm which hardened as it traced scanned drawings in the air. It is the earliest known articulation of the general concept and procedure of additive fabrication under automated control, predating any working device by decades.

1950 · 76 years ago

Raymond F. Jones described a "molecular spray" fabrication process in "Tools of the Trade"

Published in the November 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, the story again anticipated additive fabrication in fiction. Such speculative accounts formed the imaginative background against which engineers later pursued rapid prototyping.

1971 · 55 years ago

Johannes F Gottwald received US patent 3596285A for the "Liquid Metal Recorder"

Applied for in July 1969 and granted on 27 July 1971, the patent described a continuous inkjet metal device forming removable metal fabrications on a reusable surface, with material salvaged by remelting. It appears to be the first patent describing 3D printing with rapid prototyping and controlled on-demand manufacture of patterns.

1974 · 52 years ago

David E. H. Jones laid out the concept of 3D printing in his Ariadne column in New Scientist

Writing in a mainstream science journal, Jones set out the principle of building objects under computer control. The piece carried the idea from fiction into technical discussion shortly before the first working apparatus appeared.

April 1980 · 45 years ago

Hideo Kodama published the first account of a layer-by-layer photopolymer printing system

Working at the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute, Hideo Kodama built an XYZ plotter that cured thermoset polymer with UV exposure controlled either by a mask pattern or a scanning fibre transmitter, filing a patent published on 10 November 1981 and publishing journal papers the same year — the first account of a layer-by-layer photopolymer printing system. His work drew no reaction, his budget was about 60,000 yen a year, and the patent rights were abandoned and the project terminated. Though it predated Western patents by several years, this early invention of stereolithography was never commercialised, and credit for the technology later concentrated in the United States.

1982 · 44 years ago

Raytheon Technologies Corp was granted a patent for fabricating articles by sequential deposition of powdered metal

US patent 4323756, granted on 6 April 1982, described using hundreds or thousands of layers of powdered metal fused by a laser energy source. It is an early reference to forming layers and fabricating articles on a substrate, foreshadowing metal powder-bed additive manufacturing.

1983 · 43 years ago

Robert Howard founded R.H. Research, later Howtek, Inc., to develop thermoplastic inkjet printing

Started in 1983 and renamed Howtek in February 1984, the company developed the Pixelmaster colour inkjet printer using hot-melt thermoplastic ink, commercialised in 1986. Howtek's single-nozzle hot-melt inkjets and materials went on to underpin several early 3D printers and remain popular in metal investment casting and jewellery printing.

1984 · 42 years ago

Bill Masters filed what the USPTO records as the first 3D printing patent in history

Filed on 2 July 1984, US 4665492 covered a computer automated manufacturing process and system. It was the first of three Masters patents that laid foundations for later 3D printing systems, and he subsequently founded Ballistic Particle Manufacturing.

1984 · 42 years ago

Alain Le Méhauté, Olivier de Witte and Jean Claude André filed a French patent for the stereolithography process, later abandoned

The application of 16 July 1984 was dropped by the French General Electric Company (now Alcatel-Alsthom) and CILAS, the Laser Consortium, reportedly 'for lack of business perspective'. The abandonment ceded commercial leadership in stereolithography to the United States.

1984 · 42 years ago

Chuck Hull filed the patent for a stereolithography fabrication system that became the first commercial 3D printer

Patent US4575330, filed 8 August 1984 and assigned to UVP Inc. and later to Hull, described building objects by curing photopolymers layer by layer with ultraviolet light. Hull also contributed the STL file format and the digital slicing and infill strategies still common today.

1986 · 40 years ago

Charles "Chuck" Hull and 3D Systems Corporation were granted the stereolithography patent and released the first commercial 3D printer, the SLA-1

The patent was granted in 1986 and 3D Systems Corporation was formed, with the SLA-1 released later in 1987 or 1988. This marked the transition of additive fabrication from laboratory curiosity to a purchasable industrial machine, albeit at prices upwards of $300,000.

1988 · 37 years ago

Scott Crump patented fused deposition modelling and founded Stratasys

S. Scott Crump developed fused deposition modeling in 1988 and patented it — a special application of plastic extrusion that pushes a continuous thermoplastic filament through a moving heated nozzle. His company Stratasys marketed its first FDM machine in 1992. FDM became the most widely used 3D printing process for both industrial prototyping and later low-cost desktop and hobbyist machines, accounting for 46 per cent of processes as of 2018.

January 1988 · 38 years ago

3D Systems shipped the SLA-1, the first commercial 3D printer

3D Systems shipped the first SLA-1 machines: Beta units went in January 1988 to Baxter Healthcare, Pratt and Whitney, General Motors and AMP, and the first production unit shipped to Precision Castparts in April 1988. Layer thickness was 0.006 inches and the machine used a 12-watt HeCd laser sweeping at 30 inches per second. As the first commercial 3D printer, it commercialised stereolithography for industrial prototyping, giving manufacturers a way to produce physical models directly from digital design files for the first time.

1989 · 37 years ago

EOS was founded in Germany to commercialise laser sintering

The company built on selective laser sintering research to become one of the leading industrial metal and polymer printing manufacturers, establishing Europe as a centre of the emerging industry.

1989 · 37 years ago

Richard Helinski patented a method for constructing three-dimensional articles by particle deposition

Applied for on 7 November 1989 and granted on 4 August 1992 as US5136515A, the patent came from a former Howtek engineer who formed C.A.D-Cast, later Visual Impact Corporation. Royden Sanders licensed the patent before manufacturing the Modelmaker 6 Pro at Sanders Prototype in 1993.

mid-1990s · 36 years ago

Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University developed new metal deposition techniques including microcasting and sprayed materials

These academic advances, together with the spread of sacrificial and support materials, enabled new object geometries and began to challenge the assumption that metalworking tool-paths could only remove material. They laid groundwork for the metal additive processes later known as selective laser sintering and melting.

mid-1990s · 36 years ago

Surgeons began using 3D printing for anatomical modelling in reconstructive surgery planning

Bony reconstructive surgery planning was the first clinical application of additive manufacturing. It established medicine as a durable early market and precursor to bioprinting and prosthetics work.

1992 · 34 years ago

Visual Impact Corporation and BPM introduced thermoplastic inkjet 3D printers using Howtek inkjets

VIC's 3D printer of 1992 used Howtek single-nozzle hot-melt inkjets, and Bill Masters formed Ballistic Particle Manufacturing to bring out his own 3D printer product in 1994. These machines carried drop-on-demand deposition into commercial 3D printing.

1993 · 33 years ago

Emanuel Sachs at MIT developed the powder-bed inkjet process originally called "3D printing"

The process deposited binder onto a powder bed using standard and custom inkjet print heads, layer by layer. It was commercialised by Soligen Technologies, Extrude Hone Corporation and Z Corporation, and gave the field its most enduring popular name.

1993 · 33 years ago

Sanders Prototype, Inc (later Solidscape) introduced a high-precision polymer jet fabrication system with soluble supports

The 'dot-on-dot' inkjet system offered precision suited to investment casting patterns; its Modelmaker 6 Pro shipped to Hitchner Corporations' Metal Casting Technology in Milford, New Hampshire, for casting golf clubs and engine parts. The company later became Solidscape.

1995 · 31 years ago

Fraunhofer Society developed the selective laser melting process

Selective laser melting fully fuses metal powder layer by layer rather than merely sintering it, enabling dense metal end-use parts. The German institute's process became one of the principal industrial routes to additively manufactured metal components.

2000s · 26 years ago

Additive manufacturing became an umbrella term for the field

The term gained popularity in the 2000s, inspired by the theme of material being added together by various means. By the early 2010s '3D printing' had become the popular and maker-community term while 'additive manufacturing' was preferred by industrial part producers, machine makers and technical standards organisations.

2004 · 22 years ago

Adrian Bowyer at the University of Bath designed the RepRap self-replicating open-source 3D printer

Bowyer's plans, released in 2004, were taken up from 2005 by users who designed and distributed printers able to print around 70 per cent of their own parts. RepRap seeded the open-source desktop printing movement and the collaborative software ecosystem around it.

2005 · 21 years ago

Academic journals began reporting on artistic applications of 3D printing

Scholarly attention to creative uses signalled the technology's diffusion beyond engineering. In the 2010s printing also became intensively used in cultural heritage for preservation, restoration and dissemination.

2006 · 20 years ago

Researchers at Wake Forest University reported lab-grown bladders built on 3D-printed scaffolds

The work demonstrated that printed biodegradable scaffolds seeded with a patient's own cells could form functioning tissue, opening bioprinting as a distinct branch of additive manufacturing.

2006 · 20 years ago

Evan Malone and Hod Lipson started the Fab@Home open-source fabrication project

The project aimed to design a low-cost, open-source fabrication system that users could build and improve themselves, posting feedback collaboratively. Alongside RepRap it made additive manufacturing accessible outside industry and research laboratories.

2009 · 17 years ago

Expiry of key fused-deposition patents opened the way for low-cost desktop 3D printers

Patent expiry allowed a wave of low-cost machines and open-source designs to reach hobbyists and small businesses, moving the technology beyond specialist industrial users for the first time.

2011 · 15 years ago

The additive manufacturing file format (AMF) was introduced as a successor CAD file format to STL

AMF was created to address the limitations of the long-dominant STL format used for slicing models. Its introduction reflected the maturing of digital workflows as additive manufacturing moved towards industrial production.

2012 · 14 years ago

Filabot developed a system for recycling plastic into printer filament

The system closed the loop with plastic waste, allowing any FDM or FFF 3D printer to print with a wider range of plastics. It broadened the material base available to desktop machines and addressed waste concerns.

2012 · 14 years ago

Defense Distributed disclosed plans for a downloadable 3D-printed firearm

The US-based group announced it would design a working plastic gun that anyone with a 3D printer could download and reproduce. The episode opened a lasting debate about the regulation and security implications of distributed digital manufacturing.

April 2026 · 4 months ago

China's aerospace and shipbuilding sector scaled up large-format metal printing of structural airframe and hull components

Wire-arc and powder-bed systems produced titanium and aluminium structural parts at sizes approaching full airframe sections, part of a state-backed push to cut reliance on imported forgings.

• Chinese metal powder suppliers expanded domestic titanium powder output

March 2026 · 5 months ago

India's Ministry of Defence widened onboard 3D printing on naval vessels to cut spare-parts dependency

Additional shipboard printing units were fielded across the Indian Navy fleet under the self-reliance in defence manufacturing programme, allowing crews to fabricate replacement components at sea rather than await imports.

February 2026 · 6 months ago

The United Arab Emirates continued construction-sector rollout of 3D-printed buildings

Dubai authorities reported further progress toward their long-standing target for a substantial share of new municipal buildings to be produced using additive construction techniques, extending a programme running since the late 2010s.

January 2026 · 7 months ago

The US Navy expanded afloat additive manufacturing labs on carriers and submarine tenders

More vessels were fitted with shipboard printing suites able to produce polymer and some metal spare parts underway, part of a wider effort to shorten repair timelines during extended deployments.

• Fleet maintenance officers reported reduced part lead times

Early 2026 · 7 months ago

South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research upgraded its large-format titanium printing programme

The Aeroswift laser powder-bed system, developed for large aerospace-grade titanium components, underwent further capability upgrades aimed at qualifying parts for regional aerospace and defence supply chains.

December 2025 · 8 months ago

European aerospace manufacturers qualified additional printed titanium and nickel engine components for flight use

Airbus and Safran suppliers advanced certification of further printed parts for jet engines and structural brackets, continuing a multi-year effort to increase the printed content of new aircraft programmes.

October 2025 · 1 year ago

North Bristol NHS Trust delivered a full-face 3D-printed prosthesis at its new Bristol 3D Medical Center

Led by senior reconstructive scientist Amy Davey, the process used advanced scanning and medical-grade resins to replicate cyclist Dave Richards's features after severe burns. It marked a milestone in integrated medical 3D-printing facilities in the UK.

2025 · last year

Humanitarian groups in Rwanda and Kenya expanded 3D-printed prosthetics programmes

International non-governmental organisations continued to scale mobile and clinic-based printing of low-cost prosthetic limbs and medical devices, extending programmes aimed at reducing reliance on imported medical hardware.

• Local technicians took on a greater share of device fitting

Mid-2025 · last year

Bambu Lab, a Chinese desktop printer maker drew scrutiny over firmware changes tightening cloud connectivity

A firmware update requiring greater reliance on manufacturer cloud services prompted an open-source community backlash and renewed debate in Western markets about dependence on Chinese-made hardware for local manufacturing tools.

July 2024 · 2 years ago

Researchers in Advanced Materials Technologies reported 3D-printed artificial blood vessels matching natural durability

A rotating spindle integrated into a 3D printer produced grafts from a water-based gel, subsequently coated in biodegradable polyester molecules. The vessels were reported as strong and durable as natural ones, a step towards printed implantable tissue.

April 2024 · 2 years ago

The University of Maine revealed the world's largest 3D printer, Factory of the Future 1.0

The machine can produce objects up to 96 feet, or 29 metres, long. It pushed the upper limit of printable object size towards housing and marine-scale structures.

2024 · 2 years ago

Researchers used machine learning to improve 3D-printed synthetic bone, setting a shock-absorption record

Machine learning was applied to optimise the printed structures, producing a record for shock absorption. It illustrated the pairing of computational design with additive fabrication of complex internal geometries.

2024 · 2 years ago

South Korean shipbuilders piloted metal printing for replacement ship components

Major yards trialled additive manufacturing for propeller and valve components, aiming to cut lead times for parts that traditionally required long-lead castings from specialist foundries.

Late 2024 · 2 years ago

Embraer expanded qualification of printed metal parts for regional jets

The Brazilian planemaker widened its use of additively manufactured brackets and ducting on newer aircraft variants, part of a broader push among mid-size aerospace manufacturers to reduce part counts and weight.

2023 · 3 years ago

ISO and ASTM issued ISO/ASTM 52920:2023 defining industrial additive manufacturing requirements

The standard set out requirements for industrial additive manufacturing processes and production sites to ensure a required quality level, following first standards issued in 2021. Germany had earlier published a draft norm, DIN SPEC 17071:2019.

November 2021 · 5 years ago

Moorfields Eye Hospital, London fitted the world's first fully 3D-printed prosthetic eye

British patient Steve Verze received the prosthesis, replacing hand-crafted methods with a digital workflow. It showed additive manufacturing supplanting artisanal production in bespoke medical devices.

July 2021 · 5 years ago

Amsterdam unveiled the world's first 3D-printed steel bridge

Spanning 12 metres over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal, the bridge was created by robotic arms that printed over 4,500 kilograms of stainless steel. It demonstrated additive manufacturing at civil-engineering scale.

2020 · 6 years ago

Desktop 3D printers fell below US$200 for entry-level machines

By 2020 printers had reached a level of quality and price that allowed most people to take up 3D printing, with decent machines available under $200; commercial printers had still cost over $2,000 in 2014. The affordable models were typically fused deposition modelling machines.

2018 · 8 years ago

Researchers used 3D printing to create a matrix for cell immobilisation in fermentation for the first time

The application brought additive manufacturing into industrial bioprocessing. It illustrated the widening range of functional, non-structural uses for printed parts.

2018 · 8 years ago

Giuseppe Scionti developed a custom bioprinter for plant-based meat analogues

The Italian bioengineer's technology produced fibrous plant-based products mimicking meat texture and nutritional values. It extended additive manufacturing into food production.

2017 · 9 years ago

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work published a discussion paper on occupational hazards of 3D printing

The paper examined the processes and materials involved, the implications for occupational safety and health, and avenues for controlling hazards such as emissions and hot extrusion nozzles. It marked the arrival of institutional health and safety scrutiny of the technology.

2017 · 9 years ago

GE Aviation used design for additive manufacturing to build a helicopter engine with 16 parts instead of 900

The redesign showed how additive methods can consolidate assemblies rather than merely substitute for machining. Such part-count reductions carry large implications for the complexity and resilience of supply chains.

2016 · 10 years ago

Airbus and GE delivered the first LEAP engines with 3D-printed fuel nozzles

The printed nozzle reduced a 20-part assembly to a single component, cut weight by 25 per cent and shortened assembly times. It became the emblematic case of additive manufacturing delivering measurable returns in aviation.

May 2015 · 11 years ago

Airbus announced the A350 XWB included over 1,000 3D-printed components

The disclosure marked additive manufacturing's entry into large-scale commercial aerospace production. Printed parts offered weight savings and shorter lead times against conventional tooling.

2015 · 11 years ago

Pratt and Whitney delivered its first additively manufactured engine parts in the PurePower PW1500G

The engine, supplied to Bombardier, used printed compressor stators and synch ring brackets — low-stress, non-rotating parts chosen to introduce the technology. It was among the first uses of AM in serial jet engine production.

2015 · 11 years ago

The Royal Air Force flew a Eurofighter Typhoon with printed parts

The flight demonstrated that additively manufactured components could be certified for use on a front-line combat aircraft. Military aviation became an early adopter for spares and weight reduction.

2015 · 11 years ago

GE Aviation certified a 3D-printed fuel nozzle for mass production on the LEAP jet engine

The part combined twenty components into one, cutting weight and assembly time, and became one of the first metal-printed components certified for high-volume production in commercial aviation.

2014 · 12 years ago

Local Motors debuted Strati, an entirely 3D-printed vehicle

The functioning car was printed in ABS plastic and carbon fibre, with only the powertrain conventionally made. It was a landmark demonstration of large-format additive manufacturing of a complete product.

2014 · 12 years ago

Koenigsegg announced the One:1 sports car built with many 3D-printed components

The Swedish manufacturer's announcement in early 2014 showed additive parts entering low-volume high-performance automotive production. It signalled acceptance of printed components in demanding mechanical applications.

2014 · 12 years ago

Benjamin S. Cook and Manos M. Tentzeris demonstrated the first multi-material vertically integrated printed electronics platform

The VIPRE platform enabled 3D printing of functional electronics operating up to 40 GHz. It extended additive manufacturing from inert structures to working high-frequency electronic devices.

2012 · 14 years ago

Nike used 3D printing to prototype and manufacture the Vapor Laser Talon football shoe

The shoe was among the first mass-market consumer goods produced with additive methods, and New Balance followed with custom-fit athletic footwear. Such uses demonstrated the shift from prototyping to commercial production.

2012 · 14 years ago

Biotechnology firms and academia began studying 3D bio-printing for tissue engineering

Researchers explored building organs and body parts using inkjet printing techniques. This extended additive manufacturing into living materials, a distinct capability frontier from structural printing.