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Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

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Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

#1

Post by superconduct123 »

"Today I saw an old paper printer, it has all the pieces for 3D printing except the plastic. Computer sends it data, it moves in 1D to print the image on paper using ink. A 3D printer is just 3 of these moving pieces from a paper printer with a melting plastic and thin pipe and software to connect it all.

All the pieces existed to make a working 3D printer existed even in 1970! and relatively cheaply. So why has it taken so long for [at home] 3D printing to actually become a thing?

Is it because of the internet somehow? Did just no one care in the 1970-2010s? Like there aren't even prototypes from 1970 from garage hobbyists for 3D printing.

What was wrong?!"

- omgsoftcats

Re: Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

#2

Post by LarsAlereon »

It was invented but protected by patents, so it wasn't until those patents expired that companies and hobbyists started to experiment. Early 3D printers hadn't figured out things like layer adhesion yet so parts tended to be too weak to be very useful. It wasn't clear that this was an area for improvement rather than a fundamental downside of the technology.

Re: Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

#6

Post by WillPostForFood »

LarsAlereon wrote: post #2

It was invented but protected by patents, so it wasn't until those patents expired that companies and hobbyists started to experiment. Early 3D printers hadn't figured out things like layer adhesion yet so parts tended to be too weak to be very useful. It wasn't clear that this was an area for improvement rather than a fundamental downside of the technology.

Yes! The fused deposition modeling (additive printing) patents expired in 2009, which triggered the wave of innovation and home 3d printing.

https://futurism.com/expiring-patents-set-to-improve-3d-worl...

Re: Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

#7

Post by dekhn »

I don;t think anybody was really doing FDM/FFF until the 90s and it didn't really take off until the 2000s. It was quite expensive, required a high level of expertise in both mech E and CS, and existing subtractive methods (like CNC and lathe) were very effective.

Re: Ask HN: Why did consumer 3D printing take so long to be invented?

#8

Post by vel0city »

One thing to think about is you'd need quite a beefy machine to even properly render the gcode in the 70s and 80s. In this age of printers computers often didn't even have fonts, they were ROM cartridges your printer would take. And even into the 90s there were accelerator cards for printing documents and talking to the printer in alternative ways than parallel ports.

So really, for an average hobbyist the idea of a 3D printer controllable from a home PC wouldn't really be possible until like the mid 90s. So you really need to start your look at why it wasn't a thing at some point in history I'd start the digging there, not the 1970s.

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