3D printing technology emerged in the mid-1990s and is the latest rapid prototyping device utilizing technologies such as light curing and paper lamination.
It is basically the same as ordinary printing. The printer is filled with “printing materials” such as liquid or powder.
After connecting to the computer, the “printing materials” are superimposed layer by layer through computer control, and finally, the blueprint on the computer is turned into a real thing.
This printing technology is called 3D stereo printing technology.
In 1986, American scientist Charles Hull developed the first commercial 3D rapid prototype machine.
In 1993, MIT was granted a patent for 3D printed technology.
In 1995, the American company ZCorp obtained the sole authorization from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to develop 3D printers.
In 2005, the first high-definition color 3D printer Spectrum Z510 on the market was successfully developed by ZCorp.
In November 2010, the American Jim Kor team created the world’s first car Urbee printed by a 3D printer.
In June 6, 2011, the world’s first 3D-printed bikini was released.
In July 2011, British researchers developed the world’s first 3D chocolate printer.
In August 2011, engineers at the University of Southampton developed the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft.
In November 2012, Scottish scientists used human cells to print artificial liver tissue for the first time with a 3D printer.
In October 2013, a 3D printed artwork named “God of ONO” was successfully auctioned for the first time in the world.
In November 2013, Solid Concepts, a 3D printing company in Austin, Texas, designed and manufactured a 3D printed metal pistol.
Starting August 1, 2018, 3D printed firearms will be legal in the United States, and designs for 3D printed pistols will also be freely downloadable on the Internet.
On December 10, 2018, Russian astronauts managed to print the thyroid gland of a laboratory mouse in zero gravity using a 3D bioprinter on the International Space Station.
On January 14, 2019, the University of California, San Diego published a paper in the journal Nature Medicine, using rapid 3D printing technology for the first time to create a spinal cord scaffold that mimics the structure of the central nervous system.
After loading neural stem cells, it was implanted into the spinal cord. In the injured rat’s spine, it successfully helped the rat to restore motor function.
The stent is designed to imitate the structure of the central nervous system.
It is round and only two millimeters thick. The middle of the stent is an H-shaped structure, surrounded by dozens of tiny channels with a diameter of about 200 microns, which are used to guide the implanted neural stem cells and shafts.
The protrusions grow along the site of the spinal cord injury.
On April 15, 2019, researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel used the patient’s tissue as raw material to 3D print the world’s first “complete” heart with cells, blood vessels, ventricles, and atria.
In March 2022, scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada used 3D technology to print human testicular cells and found early signs of their promising sperm production, the world’s first.
In April 2022, a new 3D printing system, a method developed by US researchers to print 3D objects within a fixed volume of resin, was published in the journal Nature.
The printed object is completely supported by thick resin, like an action figure floating in the center of a piece of jelly, which can be added from any angle. Print increasingly complex designs more easily while saving time and materials.
