Inside3DPrinting_AdamCohen

© 2014 Additive Insight LLC, www.additiveinsight.com
3D PRINTING,
PAST AND FUTURE
Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo, NYC, April 3, 2014
Adam Cohen, Principal Consultant and CEO
Additive Insight LLC
www.additiveinsight.com
adam@additiveinsight.com

THE PAST

Not Quite an Overnight Sensation
• 3D printing was first commercialized nearly 30 years ago
• With just one process
• The industry has grown very steadily since
• More applications
• More processes
• More materials
• More companies
• More revenues
• We now have a $3B industry and an major ecosystem of
machines, materials, services, software…
• And even, consultants

STEREOLITHOGRAPHY

The Epicenter
• Sylmar, CA: Best known
for a major earthquake in
1971
• Economically, a far more
significant “earthquake”
was coming
• In 1986, 3D Systems was
founded, giving birth to an
industry that will transform
our lives

The Genesis of Stereolithography
• Invented by Chuck Hull at Ultra Violet Products
• Spun off into 3D Systems with Ray Freed’s seed funding
• Initial prototype made with HP plotters, a mercury lamp, a
fiber optic bundle, and masking tape

Just a Bit Too Wild
• Ray and Chuck couldn’t
find investors at first
• Eventually sold 70% of
the company to a
Vancouver firm and went
public in Vancouver

Famous at Last

A Single Paragraph That Changed my Life
• By the time I joined in 1987, starting to ship 6 “Beta”
machines to Kodak, Pratt & Whitney, and others

SLA-250: The Industry Workhorse
• Introduced at the
“AUTOFACT” show in
November 1988
• 3D in 1989
• Sales grew from $4.6M to
17.5M
• Staff grew from 94 to 194
• Key patent survived a legal
challenge from DuPont
• In 1990, 3D was listed on
NASDAQ

Ads of the Day

Early Adopters

SELECTIVE LASER
SINTERING

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

The Birth of SLS

DTM, then 3D Systems

FUSED DEPOSITION
MODELING

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

IBM’s Foray into 3D Printing
• Similar to FDM
• Unveiled in early 1994
• Ultimately left the
business
• Stratasys bought the
patents

“3D PRINTING”

Powder, Binder, and a Great Name

Soligen and DSPC
1 jet
128 jets

Many, Many, Many Castings

Upload and Quote

Z Corp
• License for concept models
• Hired MIT grad students
• First multi-color process

Multiple Fields of Use
• Extrude Hone: Direct metal parts
• Later: ExOne
• Therics: Medical devices
• Later: Defunct
• Specific Surfaces: Ceramic filters for smokestacks
• Later: Defunct

OTHER EARLY
TECHNOLOGIES

• 1991-2000
• 375 machines sold
• Benefits
• Fast, especially for large parts
• Big issues
• Reliability, maintenance
• Mechanical strength
• Special paper
• Time-consuming post-processing
• Fire hazard
• Might have survived had it focused on
its key application
Laminated Object Manufacturing (Helisys)

LOM

Not Quite Dead
• Kira
• Selective gluing
• Mechanical cutting
• Copy paper
• Mcor
• Selective gluing
• Mechanical cutting
• Copy paper
• Color

Solid Ground Curing (Cubital)
• 1991-2000
• 33 systems sold
• Benefits
• Very innovative
• Highest throughput of all
• First process to use a 2nd material
for supports
• Easy removal
• Multi-component assemblies
• Big issues
• Massive (14’, 10,000 lb), complex,
unreliable machine needing
frequent repair
• Costly to operate (consumables,
maintenance)

Other Deceased Companies
• BPM
• 1988-1997
• “Ballistic Particle Manufacturing”
• Took 8 years to ship machines, yet even
then…
• Poor performance and reliability: many initial
customers returned their machines
• No clear advantage over FDM, 3DP, etc.;
poorer materials and speed
• Quadrax
• 1990-1992
• Stereolithography copycat
• Sold 2 systems before 3D shut them down

Direct Metal Printing: A Long Time Coming…
• Incre: Metal droplet printing
• U. Nottingham: 3-D welding
• USC / Microfabrica: Electrochemical Fabrication (EFAB)

EFAB *
* Now MICA Freeform

PERSPECTIVES

Early Issues
• Shrinkage and
distortion
• Still an issue
• Brittle parts
• Supports
• Bridgeworks helped
(1991)
• Remain an issue, esp.
for metal
• Lengthy file prep
• Messy materials

Some Lessons Learned from History
• It’s harder than you
think (even for large
companies)
• Cost isn’t everything
• Keep it simple
• The competition
matters; make sure
pros > cons
• True innovation often
comes from startups
and universities: it
needs strong patent
protection

For Industry Historians
• The Rapid Prototyping Patent Museum
additive3d.com/museum/mp.htm
• Wohlers Web site wohlersassociates.com
• Rapid Prototyping Report

Inside3DPrinting_AdamCohen

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