Chuck hull 3d printer

Pioneers of Printing: Chuck Hull and the Beginning of 3D Printing

In this edition of Pioneers of Printing we focus on the ground-breaking achievements of Charles “Chuck” Hull. His success story of the “father of 3D printing” shaped the print industry forever. Nowadays, 3D printing is playing an important part in the future of our industry, manufacturing and medical printing.

In this edition of Pioneers of Printing we take a look at the life of Charles “Chuck” Hull, the father of 3D printing. In 1983, Chuck Hull invented stereolithography, also known as 3D printing. That very year he created the first 3D printed part ever. His innovation has changed print forever and opened new doors to revolutionize not only our industry but also other fields like car manufacturing, the aerospace sector and medical printing.

Humble Beginnings

Chuck Hull was born as Charles W. Hull on May 12, 1939, in Clifton, Colorado. After graduating from Central High School in Grad Junction, Colorado, he went on to study engineering physics at the University of Colorado. In 1961 he received his Bachelor of Science and started out his career.

The Basic ‘Aha’

Hull says, he started out to solve a problem. In 1983, when he first came up with the idea of printed 3D parts, he was working at a company using UV light to harden tabletop coatings. During his work, he had to prototype plastic parts that had to be injected into a mold, which he called a “really tedious process”. Seeing the time and effort it took to fulfil this job, he thought about a way to not only speed up but simplify the process of occupying his workdays. There had to be a more efficient way to approach the task:

“I saw it as a big impediment to design a plastic part because I had to design a plastic part now and then so I would get frustrated. I kind of put two and two together. If I could print lots of these layers, I can have a proper plastic part, so that was just the basic ‘aha’.”

Chuck Hull applied for his patent “Apparatus for production of three-dimensional objects by stereolithography” on August 8, 1984, coining the term stereolithography. The patent was granted on March 11, 1986, changing the print industry forever. It soon became a widely used technique in rapid prototyping and direct manufacturing. True to his occupancy at the time, Hull’s initial invention worked with thinly printed layers of ultraviolet curable materials stacked on top of each other.

After his patent was granted in the United States, he co-founded 3D Systems. At the beginning he was working with solid imaging technology only. Just one year later, in 1987, his company produced the first-ever 3D printer: the SLA-1 Stereolithography (SLA) printer.

His 3D printing technology was a sales hit among car manufacturers, the aerospace sector and companies designing medical equipment. Soon, industry giants like General Motors and Mercedes-Benz used his systems to build prototypes.

Today, Chuck Hull holds 93 US and 20 European patents to his name and was awarded the European Inventor Award in the Non-European countries category in 2014 by the European Patent Office and the Industrial Research Institute’s IRI Achievement Award in 2015 for his ground-breaking invention of stereolithography.

What the Future Holds

Around 2010, more than 20 years after Chuck Hull started out with his humble idea, 3D printers became a comparatively inexpensive product that even made its way into private households – a development the inventor predicted from the start, telling his wife it would take between 25 and 30 years before the technology would find its way into the home.

Talking to the father of 3D printing today, he is surprised about what exactly his own creation was capable of achievingand curious to see where the future will lead.

“If you’re innovative and creative there’s just a tremendous opportunity.”

In an interview with Industry Week Hull said:

“I always say, first disclaimer, I’m not much of a futurist. But certainly, the benefits are no tooling, customizable fasts, and so a lot of plastic parts will be automated and built with 3D-printing. It’s another step toward digital manufacturing, and it fits right into the whole movement. In the future, people won’t even think about it. It’ll be the recognized way to manufacture plastic parts. The same with metal parts, except right now the provision is that those tend to be more specialized parts. Maybe they’ll advance to the same level.
The trend we’re on right now is more aerospace parts and medical parts.”

Do you have any predictions about the future of 3D printing?

3d3d print

You Can Now See the First Ever 3D Printer - Invented by Chuck Hull - In the National Inventors Hall of Fame - 3DPrint.com

Today, when you mention the name Charles (Chuck) Hull to the average individual, they probably have no clue who the heck you are talking about. However, if you were to mention this name to someone who is as enthused about additive manufacturing/3D printing as I am, they will probably know that he is the Thomas Edison of the entire 3D printing industry. Chuck Hull was the man who created the first 3D printer capable of printing an actual part. While today, his name certainly doesn’t come close to being anywhere as noteworthy as Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin, or Alexander Graham Bell, one day in the future it very well may.

Hull’s first 3D printer proved successful over 30 years ago, on March 9, 1983. I was merely a one-year-old toddler back then, and “3D printing” was still decades away from even being considered a term. “Rapid Prototyping” was the description given to Hull’s unique new machine, the “SLA-1,” as it was created in order to speed up the lengthy time-frame it took to have prototypes of products created. It would take approximately 6-8 weeks using one-off tooling processes back in the early ’80s, so a machine that could print a part in just hours was a major breakthrough within the manufacturing industry.

Three years later, in 1986, Hull formed a company called 3D Systems to better market and sell his “Rapid Prototyping” machines which have since earned the name “3D printer” or “Additive Manufacturing” machine.

On May 21 of last year, Hull earned the honor of being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Alexandria, VA, joining the ranks of many tremendous inventors before him, including Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and the aforementioned Thomas Edison. Hull was noted for inventing Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing as well as co-creating the STL file format, the most common 3D printing file format that has been used to date.

Now it has just been announced that visitors of the National Inventors Hall of Fame will not only have an opportunity to see a 3D printed bust of Hull, printed on a 3D Systems ProJet x60 printer, but they will also be able to see the first-ever 3D printer that Hull invented, the SLA-1.

When Hull invented this machine, he never envisioned one day having a 3D printed bust of himself displayed in the Hall of Fame. In fact, he never thought 3D printing technology would end up becoming so popular. Today, 3D printing is available to just about anyone, with printers ranging in all different sizes and price points.

“The consumer and maker movement has created a lot of awareness about the possibilities that technology makes available to people, and that has made people look at 3D printing as something they can now do,” Hull explained. “3D printing is just another tool, but it’s a very powerful tool that can create anything.”

Without a doubt, Hull’s contributions to the manufacturing sector, as well as the Maker Movement, have been extremely valuable. Perhaps one day kids will be learning about him in history books, right besides the Thomas Edisons and Benjamin Franklins of the world. Have you had a chance to visit the National Inventors Hall of Fame? What was your opinion of the first ever working 3D printer? Discuss in the First 3D Printer Sent to the Hall of Fame forum thread on 3DPB.com.

Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.

Tagged with: 3d systems • charles hull • chuck hull • first 3d printer • inventor of 3d printing • national inventors hall of fame • sla 1 3d printer • sla-1

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

The night 3D printing was born: the story of inventor Chuck Hull

The night that 3D printing was born
3D printing

the story of inventor Chuck Hull

March 9, 1983, San Gabriel, California. In the evening, the telephone rang at Engineer Hull's house. Antoinette picked up the phone and heard her husband's excited voice. Mrs. Hull was not too surprised by the call - her husband was constantly late at work until late at night. But instead of the usual apologies, the engineer insistently asked his wife to drop everything and urgently come to the laboratory. Antoinette stood in her pajamas and was already getting ready for bed, but she could not refuse. She only replied, "It's in your best interest to make it worth my attention."

New Gutenberg

The night 3D printing was born.
Part 1

In the early 1980s, the US economy was in recession: unemployment was rising, incomes were falling, and a third of industrial enterprises were idle. The economic crisis shook faith in traditional technologies - enterprises needed modernization, unexpected and fresh solutions. It was obvious to everyone that the future belongs to computers and microelectronics - it remains to find people who would combine IT technologies and conveyor production. The world needed inventors again.

In 1983, Charles "Chuck" Hull worked for Ultraviolet Products (UVP). Unlike the eccentric geniuses of that era, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, distinguished by anything but patience, Chuck did not seek to conquer the world at all costs. His path to invention was reminiscent of the life of Johannes Gutenberg, a German jeweler and minter whose inquisitive mind led to the creation of the first printing press. Like Gutenberg, until the age of 40, Hull was a typical modern "craftsman" - an engineer with a good university education and a standard career. After traveling around the country, in the late 70s, Chuck and his family settled in San Gabriel, a small town in California, where he took the position of vice president of UVP development.

Ultraviolet Products focused on ultraviolet solutions: equipment, lamps, photosensitive polymers. Furniture factories bought UVP technologies - such materials replaced conventional varnishes and paints for wood. A special polymer was applied to a countertop or wood slab and then cured under ultraviolet light. It turned out a strong plastic frame, an analogue of wood veneer.

While testing another polymer, Chuck Hull wondered what would happen if successive exposure to ultraviolet light was applied to not one, but several layers of the polymer.

At UVP, Hull worked on the production of those UV curing furniture paints. While testing the next polymer, Chuck Hull thought: what would happen if not one, but several layers of plastic were successively exposed to ultraviolet radiation. If the layers are formed by curing them in turn with UV radiation, it is possible to arrange a plastic product of absolutely arbitrary shape. For this, it is necessary that the process be controlled by a computer - then the probability of marriage will be negligible. This is how the first idea to combine computer modeling and photochemistry appeared.

Post-apocalyptic
kluge

The night 3D printing was born.
Part 2

Chuck needed a lab to get started. With only service equipment on hand, the engineer turned to his boss for help. The UVP president didn't share his subordinate's enthusiasm: after all, his firm makes ultraviolet lamps, not Star Trek replicators. If Hull wants to invent, let him do it in his spare time. So they agreed: during the day, Hull performed direct duties, while he devoted his nights and weekends to independent research.

The first 3D printer turned out to be a kludge — that's what technicians call mindless-looking but workable junk.

The engineer was assigned a small room for research. It was there that 3D printing was born in experimental pains. Chuck set up equipment, tested polymers, and wrote programs. Hull later admitted that, as a discoverer, he made every mistake he could. But after months of work, Chuck was lucky - the inventor finally designed a working system in which an ultraviolet lamp illuminated a container of photopolymer.

Hull wrote the code that tells the printer how many layers to use on his own. Therefore, initially the device could only produce structures of a very simple form. And in appearance, the world's first 3D printer did not shine with grace. Chuck described it with the word “kluge,” the technical term for mindless-looking but workable junk: “The 3D printer looked post-apocalyptic, like a piece of equipment from the Water World movie.

March 9, 1983 is considered the birth date of 3D printing - on this day, Hull's "monster" produced something similar to the first 3D model. Then Chuck, as usual, stayed up late in the laboratory, experimenting with the settings of the apparatus. Recently, the polymer, although it hardened evenly, turned into spaghetti due to the low sintering of the layers. But not at this time. The settings were correct, the kluge did not fail, and after 45 minutes of buzzing, the device reproduced a small bowl.

Hull recalled in an interview: “I called it the eye cup because it looked like the eyedropper my wife wore all the time. It appeared to Antoinette as a communion cup. It must have been God directing my efforts.” But Chuck didn't exactly feel like a monk that night, more like a medieval alchemist who created a piece of gold from liquid slime.

The accomplished “father of 3D printing” called his wife and urgently asked her to come to the laboratory. In response, he heard Antoinette's angry voice: "It is in your interest that this be worth my attention." As his wife entered, Chuck showed off the first 3D printed object. It was an ordinary cup, unremarkable, except for the circular sections on the walls. Years later, Antoinette recounted the events of that night: “He held this cup in his hand and said, “I did it, now the world will never be the same.” We laughed and cried and stayed up all night just fantasizing about the future.”

First patent

The night 3D printing was born.
Part 3

Hull called his brainchild stereolithography: “I sat at night and tried to come up with a name for a new technology. I wanted the title to necessarily include the term "lithography", as a synonym for printing, and the Greek word "stereo", which means "volumetric", "spatial". Then I just put those two words together.”

U.S. Patent 4,575,330 titled "Apparatus for creating three-dimensional objects using stereolithography" was filed August 8, 1984 years old.

Convinced of the viability of the method, Chuck worked on the device in his small laboratory. A year later, he managed to bring the development to patenting: “As soon as I got a normally working machine, I immediately turned to a lawyer. He wrote a document for the patent office." U.S. Patent 4,575,330 entitled "Apparatus for creating three-dimensional objects using stereolithography" was filed August 8, 1984. In the application, Chuck described stereolithography as a technique for creating solid objects by successively printing thin layers of material and treating them with ultraviolet light. Hull was listed as the author of the development, the rights to the invention were transferred to UVP.

The largest manufacturer of 3D printers in the world could well have been called Ultraviolet Products, but it turned out differently. The company was affected by the economic crisis - sales fell sharply, and in order to preserve the core business, the management decided to sacrifice promising areas. During a meeting with the president, the inventor insisted on continuing research, but he could not allocate funds for the refinement of the apparatus and marketing. Then Hull suggested that the boss register a new company and become partners: overall management and promotion fell on the shoulders of Chuck, while the president was entitled to a share of the profits. Seeing the seriousness of the intentions of the already former subordinate, the boss agreed and ceded the license to the invention to Hull.

Founding of 3D Systems

The night 3D printing was born.
Part 4

In 1986, the partners founded the first 3D printer company and named it 3D Systems. Since Chuck had never been in business, he had to put in a lot of time and effort to get his name out there: “I was calm about the technology, I never doubted that 3D printing would become popular. But I was never very confident in myself, so at first it was difficult. He attended scientific forums, consulted with colleagues from leading US universities, traveled to social events to make useful contacts. His activity paid off - a Canadian investor agreed to invest $6 million in 3D Systems.

The first mass-produced 3D printer was released in 1987 and was named SLA-1.

Refinement of the original device to marketable form lasted another year, until 1987. The first mass-produced 3D printer was named SLA-1. The huge and heavy cabinet was not very suitable for presentations, so Hull recorded short videos to demonstrate the capabilities of the 3D printer: “These films were quite corny, but we got a huge response from our customers. ”

Hull had high hopes for automakers. In the 1980s, the US auto industry lagged far behind Japan's, and American companies were desperate for a secret weapon. They became a 3D printer. With the help of 3D printing, engineers could quickly prototype small parts such as door handles and gear levers. Hull's predictions were fully justified: General Motors and Mercedes-Benz soon introduced stereolithography for the manufacture and testing of prototypes.

American companies were desperate for a secret weapon. They became a 3D printer.

Hull later found out that 3D printing was applicable not only to liquids, but also to any gradually solidifying materials that could change their physical state. Over the course of several years, he patented dozens of new solutions and technologies, including STL, a new data format for digital models. This format represents the object as a set of triangular faces and supports layering.

Despite the success of 3D Systems, the invention of 3D printing did not initially cause the industrial revolution that computers did. The real boom in additive manufacturing (as well as the recognition of the merits of the inventor himself) occurred later, in the 21st century. But fame and fame never bothered Hull - he was always distinguished by patience. At one time, the developer told his wife that 3D printing technology will take 25-30 years to take its rightful place in the market, but after that it will play an important role in the industry. Both of Hull's predictions turned out to be correct.

Today, 3D Systems is one of the largest 3D printer manufacturers in the world with a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. 78-year-old Chuck Hull continues to work in his native company, combining the positions of executive vice president and chief engineer. He has over 100 patents in the US, Europe and Japan, including 7 3D printing technologies. In 2014, Hull was inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, placing his name alongside other notables such as Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla, and the Wright brothers.

2018 Project of the Information and Analytical Agency 3Dpulse.ru .
Marketing group " Tekart ".