Who Invented the 3D Printer

You may have heard of 3D printing being heralded as the future of manufacturing. And with the way the technology has advanced and spread commercially, it may very well make good on the hype surrounding it. So, what is 3D printing? And who came up with it? The best example to describe how 3D printing works comes from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. In that fictional futuristic universe, the crew aboard a spaceship uses a small device called a replicator to create virtually anything, as in anything from food and drinks to toys. Now while both are capable of rendering three-dimensional objects, 3D printing isn’t nearly as sophisticated. Whereas a replicator manipulates subatomic particles to produce whatever small object comes to mind, 3D printers â€Å"print† out materials in successive layers to form the object. Early Development Historically speaking, the development of the technology began in the early 1980s, even predating the aforementioned TV show. In 1981, Hideo Kodama of the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute was the first to publish an account of how materials called photopolymers that hardened when exposed to UV light can be used to rapidly fabricate solid prototypes. Though his paper laid the groundwork for 3D printing, he wasn’t the first to actually build a 3D printer. That prestigious honor goes to engineer Chuck Hull, who designed and created the first 3D printer in 1984. He had been working for a company that used UV lamps to fashion tough, durable coatings for tables when he hit on the idea to take advantage of ultraviolet technology to make small prototypes. Fortunately, Hull had a lab to tinker with his idea for months.   The key to making such a printer work were the photopolymers that were stayed in a liquid state until they reacted to ultraviolet light. The system that Hull would eventually develop, known as stereolithography, used a beam of UV light to sketch out the shape of the object out of a vat of liquid photopolymer. As the light beam hardened each layer along the surface, the platform would move down so that the next layer can be hardened. He filed a patent on the technology in 1984, but it was three weeks after a team of French inventors, Alain Le Mà ©hautà ©, Olivier de Witte, and Jean Claude Andrà ©, filed a patent for a similar process. However, their employers abandoned efforts to further develop the technology due to â€Å"lack of business perspective.† This allowed Hull to copyright the term â€Å"Stereolithography.† His patent, titled â€Å"Apparatus for Production of Three-Dimensional Objects by Stereolithography† was issued on March 11, 1986. That year, Hull also formed 3D systems in Valencia, California so he could begin rapid prototyping commercially. Expanding to Different Materials and Techniques While Hull’s patent covered many aspects of 3D printing, including the design and operating software, techniques and a variety of materials, other inventors would build upon the concept with different approaches. In 1989, a patent was awarded to Carl Deckard, a University of Texas graduate student who developed a method called selective laser sintering. With SLS, a laser beam was used to custom-bind powdered materials, such as metal, together to form a layer of the object. Fresh powder would be added to the surface after each successive layer. Other variations such as direct metal laser sintering and selective laser melting are also used for crafting metal objects. The most popular and most recognizable form of 3D printing is called fused deposition modeling. FDP, developed by inventor S. Scott Crump lays down the material in layers directly onto a platform. The material, usually a resin, is dispensed through a metal wire and, once released through the nozzle, hardens immediately. The idea came to Crump in 1988 while he was trying to make a toy frog for his daughter by dispensing candle wax through a glue gun. In 1989, Crump patented the technology and with his wife co-founded Stratasys Ltd. to make and sell 3D printing machines for rapid prototyping or commercial manufacturing. They took their company public in 1994 and by 2003, FDP became the top-selling rapid prototyping technology.

Felix Randall - 1416 Words

FELIX RANDAL The Poem â€Å"Felix Randal† is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme (abba, abba, ccd, ccd); although not published until 1918, it was written in 1880. The title character is known from extrinsic evidence to have been a thirty-one-year-old blacksmith named Felix Spencer, who died of pulmonary tuberculosis; Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, while a curate in a slum parish in Liverpool, visited him often, administered the last sacraments, and officiated at his funeral. Hence the poem is largely romantic self-expression. There is little or no ironic separation between the â€Å"I† (the speaker within the poem) and the author (the historical Hopkins outside the poem), so the â€Å"I† may be taken as a Roman Catholic priest†¦show more content†¦After eight lines of speaking objectively about Felix Randal in the third-person-singular â€Å"he,† the ninth line is a generalization about the bond of affection that grows between the patient and a priest who comes regularly to visit. At this point a sedate, well-behaved, almost dull poem leaps to life. The little phrase â€Å"child, Felix, poor Felix Randal† is the emotional center and high point of the sonnet. The final three lines raise an enduring image over the farrier’s grave: Felix at the height of his physical vigor, the human correlative of the huge draft-horses which he shoes so effortlessly. Forms and Devices The sentence structure follows the sonnet’s Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme (abba, abba, ccd, ccd), forming four self-contained statements. The rhythm is accentual hexameter (modeled on Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English prototypes); only the accented syllables count in the scansion, and there may be any number of unaccented syllables. Hopkins believed that the English iambic pentameter line of ten relatively short syllables was too â€Å"narrow,† too light and short, relative to its Italian model in which each line had eleven relatively long syllables, so he experimented with many different formal adjustments to try to bring the English sonnet into conformity with the Italian model. The first image that needs special comment is â€Å"mould† (line 2). In Hopkins’s poetry, the word sometimes refers to shape, sometimes to earth and burial. Here, â€Å"mould†Show MoreRelatedFelix Randall1406 Words   |  6 PagesFELIX RANDAL The Poem â€Å"Felix Randal† is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme (abba, abba, ccd, ccd); although not published until 1918, it was written in 1880. The title character is known from extrinsic evidence to have been a thirty-one-year-old blacksmith named Felix Spencer, who died of pulmonary tuberculosis; Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, while a curate in a slum parish in Liverpool, visited him often, administered the last sacraments, and officiated at his funeral. Hence theRead More The New Age Employee Essay1277 Words   |  6 Pagescompetitive within their global market. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.) Llyod G. Nigro, Felix A. Nigro. (1994) 4th Edition.The New Public Personnel Administration. F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc. 2.) Dennis L. Dresang. (1999) 3rd Edition. Public Personnel Management and Public Policy. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 3.) Library of Congress. (2000). Managing Human Resources: A Partnership Perspective. Author, Susan E. Jackson, Randall S. Schuler. South-Western College Publishing, a division of Thomson LearningRead MoreA Book Call The Mythical Man Month1458 Words   |  6 Pagesscattering over time during the software lifecycle. †¢ Jensen model is a software development schedule/effort estimation model which incorporates the effects of any of the environmental factors impacting the software development cost and schedule (Randall W. Jensen, 1984). Jensen proposed his software calculation which transmits the actual size of the system and the knowledge to the application of the system. †¢ Checkpoint is an automated, knowledge-based software estimation tool developed by SPR SoftwareRead MoreAchieving Nothing Except Revenge: Research Shows That Capital Punishment Is Unsuitable for Civilized Nations1404 Words   |  6 Pagespossibility that the failure to inflict capital punishment will fail to protect life† (Liptak A1). Wrongly inflicting capital punishment could put an innocent man in danger of being executed, protecting no man’s life at all. In Texas, a man named Randall Dall Adams came within three days of execution before evidence was found that he had been framed. He was then released after being held in prison for over a decade (The Danger of Executing the Innocent). What if that evidence had been found four daysRead MoreThe Death Penalty : A Waste Of Time And Money2355 Words   |  10 Pagesevidence, showing that Charles was in Florida at the very time of the crime, eventually establishing his innocence – but not until he had spent m ore than three years under the death sentence. †¢ In 1989, Texas authorities decided not to retry Randall Dale Adams after the appellate court reversed his conviction for murder. Adams had spent more than three years on death row for the murder of a Dallas police officer. He was convicted on the perjured testimony of a 16-year-old youth who was the realRead MoreEssay on The Effects of Cartels in Mexico2350 Words   |  10 Pagescomparison to what is seen today. In the 1980s, before the Medellin and Cali cartels of Colombia were disbanded, Mexico did not have any modern drug cartels (Beith 41). Instead, there was one man who controlled all drugs moving through Mexico: Miguel Angel Felix The Godfather Gallardo. Regarded by Robert Fillippone, in his journal article titled â€Å"The Medellin Cartel: Why We Can’t Win the Drug War† as a criminal genius, Gallardo saw the evolving methods used by Colombian counter-narcotics police and devisedRead MoreProblem Areas in Legal Ethics4658 Words   |  19 Pagesrigid di scipline that demands that in his every exertion the only criterion be that truth and justice triumph. This discipline is what has given the law profession its nobility, its prestige, its exalted place. From a lawyer, to paraphrase Justice Felix Frankfurter, are expected those qualities of truth-speaking, a high sense of honor, full candor, intellectual honesty, and the strictest observance of fiduciary responsibility - all of which, throughout the centuries, have been compendiously described

Naive Realism Essay Example For Students

Naive Realism Essay Naive realism is just a way of looking at the world. Also called common sense realism, things are perceived directly as they are. True naive realists would never sum up or analyze their views, because they do not consider them views but the way things obviously are. However, I will do my best to illuminate them: I, the naive realist, am a human being. There is the physical world, the space where everything exists and the time in which everything happens. There are many things in this physical world, each largely separate from the other and persisting over a span of time. Time is divided into now, which is real and experienced, the past, which once existed but now does not, and the future, which does not exist yet but will. My senses give me direct knowledge of reality. If I see a chair, it is because there is a chair physically where and when I see it. There are exceptions, such as when I am dreaming or watching a movie, but these are rare and obviously not real. I can know things through my senses, through thinking about things, and through communication with other people. Other peoples beliefs may be correct or not, but beliefs of people I respect, and beliefs held commonly by most people in my society, are usually true. Science used to support naÃÆ'Â ¯ve realism to a certain point, that is to say, things being what they seem was the easiest, and the only answer in the not-so-distant past. However, eventually classical science broke away from naÃÆ'Â ¯ve realism in a major way. Scientists drew a line in the sand between objective reality and subjective perception. All of a sudden, the grass wasnt really green and the sky wasnt blue, in fact, they had no color at all. Color became the interaction between light, the object, and the human eye. For example, if Im looking at a red rose, science says that the light from the sun hits the flower, which both absorbs and reflects the light. A small portion of that reflected light hits the human eye, which puts aside most of it and instead focuses on an even smaller portion that we call visible light. It then ignores most of the visible light and focuses again on a smaller, stronger portion, which my eye would translate as the color red. Science, therefore, gave birth to a sort of sophisticated realism, where human beings do not perceive things as they truly are, but rather perceptions arise as a result of the interaction of the human and its environment. Perception does not show the object as it truly is, but in the way it interacts with human senses.