3D Printing Celebrities

So far we've covered plenty of interesting printing related gadgets and projects - but what about the names and faces behind these marvelous projects?

Who are the inventors and pioneers that helped propel 3D printing to the pedestal it currently sits on?

One cannot give recognition to the lesser names in the 3D printing world without first mentioning the mastermind that is Chuck Hull.

He is the father of stereolithography, the first link in the chain which lead to different types of manufacturing, all under the 3D printing umbrella. A visionary, Hull also invented the STL file type and the rapid prototyping technique - all critical pieces of the 3D printing pie. He is reported to have over 60 patents in the USA alone.

Chuck Hull (Image taken from IndustryWeek)

Hull's passion for his creation lead to him founding 3D Systems Corp. Established in 1986, it stands tall and proud as the world's first company dedicated to 3D printing, and is still the market leader. Currently 74, his desire to continue to lead his company clearly hasn't waned, and he still operates as the Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President.

 The metaphorical light bulb above Hull's head lit up back in 1983, when the entrepreneur was working for a small business that used UV rays to place layers of plastic onto tables and other furniture.

Envisioning a method which involved using light to mould plastic layers into 3D shapes, the cogs in his head began to turn.

After months and months of experimenting, Hull's dreams turned into reality - and a prototype was made. The printer pictured below was Hull's first ever printer, a relic now over 30 years old!

The Birth of a New Dimension in Manufacturing
(Image taken from Pcmag)

Moving onto another celebrated face in the printing industry, Malta 3D Printing presents the story of Enrico Dini, also known as 'The Man Who Prints Houses.'

In case you missed out, last week's post included a Chinese company capable of printing up to ten houses a day! While that is awe-inspiring, the Eastern firm must pay homage to Dini, the first to patent the technology to print large structures using 3D printing.

Many years ago, Enrico Dini was a robotics specialist, and enjoyed experimenting with 3D printing in his spare time. Teaming up with his brother, he created his first prototype printer, eventually succeeding in printing a stone column, and more notably - the world's first ever fully printed architectural structure.

The 'Radiolaria' - designed by Anrea Morgante, Printed by Enrico Dini
(Image taken from HuffingtonPost)

After this, Enrico Dini's name became famous in the world of architecture. A documentary filmed by Marc Webb and Wake-Walker takes a look at Dini's life as he balances work and family - at times, to his own detriment. A teaser of the documentary can be viewed here.

Enrico Dini Sits Within His 3D Printed Structure
(Image taken from 3DPrinting)

In an interview with 3DPrinting.com, Dini states that his only wish is to be able to convert his current line of printers into affordable, simplistic machines for all to use.

"My dream is to go to Africa, remove the weapons out of the hands of child soldiers and replace them with a basket. They can use the basket to collect sand and bring it to a 3D printer. This printer then builds small houses, irrigation canals, or parts for shading. Things that improve life for the people there," Dini was quoted as saying.

Our next contender for the printing pioneer award is one who claims that 3D printing is effectively lighting the fire for the third industrial revolution.

His name is Tedd Syao -  a man who, after analyzing the state of the 3D printing industry, saw fit to dedicate himself to improving its infrastructure from the bottom up - similar to how his revolutionary printer operates.

An earlier version of the Titan 1
(Image taken from 3ders.org)

As founder of Kudo3D, Syao was instrumental in the creation of the Titan 1, the next wave of SLA printers. Incredibly, the Titan 1 raised a staggering $687,000 dollars on Kickstarter in 2 minutes!

According to Kudo3D's Kickstarter page, Syao previously worked as a professor in electrical engineering, clocking in 15 years of hard work in the Photonics industry. Building on his unique set of skills and experience, Syao and his team crafted this trendsetting printer, available at the low cost of $1,999!

SLA (stereolithography) printers differ from the conventional FDM (fusion deposition modelling) printers. Kudo3D's entry into the market claims to improve the resolution, increase build speed and build space whilst focusing on reliability - effectively making it a top contender in the SLA domain.

Interestingly enough - the Titan 1 builds items 'bottom up', as displayed in the picture above.


Tedd Kao-Chih Syao, Founder of Kudo3D
(Image taken from Google+)

Tedd Syao was also at the heart of creating and polishing Kudo3D's patent for the PSP technique - a 'Passive Self-Peeling' technology, which is said to "minimize the separation force, (so that) features as tiny as a strand of hair can be preserved during the printing process" according to company's website.

From Hull's moment of brilliance to Syao and Dini's revolutionary ideas, the world of 3D printing has not stopped expanding in the last few decades. As the world continues to open its' eyes to this method of manufacturing, one can only expect more pioneers to pop up around the world. 

3D Printing Takes The Fashion World By Storm

When Chuck Hull invented the 3D printer back in the early eighties, revitalizing the fashion world may have been the last thing on his mind. Fast forward to 2014, and Hull's invention has proved instrumental in changing the way we're creating clothes, shoes and jewelry, to name a few.

3D printing is uniting experts from different professions, as architects and fashion designers team up to take things to the next level.

Whether it's a necklace packed with diamonds sold at a staggering $105,000, or a pair of football cleats by Nike perfectly designed to match your foot - 3D printing has found yet another market to sink its teeth into.

3D Printed 'Platinum Diamond Riviera Necklace' - Sold for $105,000

Besides ushering in a new wave of creativity, 3DP is also reducing fashion's carbon footprint. Regardless of the increase in plastics that one may associate with printing's penetration into the mainstream, commonly used materials like PLA are corn-based. This points to a reduction in the less environmentally friendly petroleum-based plastics.

It's difficult to mention 3D printing's finger in the fashion pie without this powerful image of Dita von Teese donning this stunning dress.

Architect Francis Bitonti and fashion designer Michael Schmidt teamed up to create this masterpiece, providing a necessary catalyst for the fashion industry to take this branch of technology seriously.

Dita von Teese Poses In A Fabulous 3D Printed Dress

The burlesque star modelled the world's first fully articulated dress at an exclusive event at the Ace Hotel in New York, hosted by the 3D printing marketplace, Shapeways.

The designer dress was created based off the golden ratio, a mathematical equation found throughout the universe which humans readily identify with beauty. For more on how the golden ratio (aka the Fibonacci sequence) was incorporated into the dress, check out this interesting Youtube video.

Courtesy of a 3D scanner, von Teese's body was scanned down to the last curve and turned into a 3D model, giving the team behind the dress unprecedented customization abilities.

This special ensemble has 17 different pieces, which were adjoined, lacquered and fitted with over 13,000 Swarovski crystals. On top of that, the dress has 2,500 intersecting parts which had to be attached by hand.

Encrusted with 13,000 Swarovski crystals

Currently, this picturesque piece will only interest the wealthiest fashion aficionados and celebrities. However - so long as you don't expect a few thousand diamonds on your average 3D printed dress - we can expect to see less glamorous garments made at home sometime soon.

Shapeways is the 3D printing company on the forefront of the fashion battle. But who else is involved in this fiery relationship between fashion and technology?

He may not be as stylish as Bitonti or Schmidt, but Google's Head of Engineering Ray Kurzweil is causing shock-waves in the fashion world - by proclaiming that we'll all be printing clothes at home within a few years.

By 2020, Kurzweil, aka "the restless genius" (as the Wall Street Journal branded him) foresees the sharing of 3D printable schematics as an everyday thing. Currently, 3D printing's online fashion world has yet to blossom, but the seed has been planted.

Kurzweil emphasizes the importance of open-source development, a huge step towards the great transformation that the fashion world would go through - so long as the restless genius' predictions are correct. Perhaps one day, a fashion equivalent of Thingiverse will emerge, symbolizing the shift in power in a fashion industry valued at $1.7 trillion in 2012 (according to FashionUnited's statistics) in America alone.

For more on Ray Kurzweil's insight into the future of 3DP, technology and fashion, check out one of his many interviews here :