From Table Laminate to 3D Printer

       founder Charles Hull (known as Chuck Hull) 

      with his replica made from 3D printing

In 1984 Chuck Hull was inspired to invent 3D system using Ultraviolet lights he used to work with on his workplace while laminating table top. He then invented stereolithography technology that allows creating 3D model made of layer and layer of photopolymer liquid. Photopolymer is an acrylic liquid material that reacts to UV lights and turn itself into hard materials. To sum up, the main method of 3D printing is to use UV lights to turn Photopolymer resin into hard materials. The first object he printed was a cup about 5 centimetres tall through coding system that took months to produce. It is very time consuming and hard to code every single step. Therefore, not long after that, he introduced STL file format to transfer digital intended model from computer aided design (CAD) data to the 3D printer.

      Hull first 3D printing machine he use to experiment