Additive Manufacturing

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF)

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) as an umbrella technology was triumphed during the 1990s, with its sub-category of technologies.

Additive Manufacturing

Sheet Lamination

Helisys, an AM company, introduced sheet lamination to the market in 1991 and quickly became a prototyping technology due to its fast cycle times, low cost and low resolution.

Additive Manufacturing

Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

Powder Bed

Inspired by Chuck Hull’s SLA process, Dieter Schwarze began working with Fraunhofer ILT from 1989-1995 to develop a new AM technology that “could make parts that wouldn’t break if they fell off the table”.

Additive Manufacturing

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

Powder Bed

SLS has been a manufacturing tool since the early 1980s and has become a mainstream ODM technology over the past two decades.

Additive Manufacturing

Stereolithography (SLA)

Vat Photopolymerization Technology

Japanese researcher Dr. Hideo Kodama invented the modern approach to SLA (Stereolithography 3D Printing) technology in the 1970s and in 1986, Charles W. Hull dubbed the technique SLA and patented the technology in 1986, founding 3D Systems to bring the product to the mainstream.

Additive Manufacturing

Direct Energy Deposition (DED)

Direct Energy Deposition (DED)’s history begins in the 1920s but it isn’t until the 1990s that different companies around the world began streamlining DED processes.

Additive Manufacturing

Binder Jetting

Binder Jetting has been a manufacturing tool since the early 1990s and has become a mainstream ODM technology over the past two decades.

Additive Manufacturing

Vat Photopolymerization

Vat Photopolymerization as an umbrella technology was triumphed during the 1970s, with its sub-category of technologies.