3D printing technology, also known as additive manufacturing technology or additive manufacturing, is a manufacturing technology of overlaying materials from bottom to top. 3D printing is a completely opposite manufacturing method to the traditional manufacturing method. It is based on CAD model data. By increasing the layer-by-layer manufacturing of materials, small batch and personalized personal tailor can be realized. The core concept of 3D printing technology originated from the United States.
1982, j.e.Blanther put forward the idea of layered manufacturing in his patent. 1902 Carlo Baese put forward the principle of photopolymer as manufacturing material. 1968, Charles Hull successfully modeled digital data in three dimensions, introduced light curing method, and founded the world's first 3D printing equipment company in the same year. In the following two or three decades, there appeared "fused deposition", "selective laser sintering" and the world's earliest full-color 3D printing technology "stereoscopic inkjet printing". A few years after the invention of "selective laser sintering" by C.R.Dechard, based on the principle of "selective laser sintering", the Hof Institute in Flawn, Germany, successfully put forward "selective laser melting technology of metal powder", which can directly mold metal parts. As a new technology in the field of rapid prototyping, 3D printing is a technology with great potential and developing at a high speed. 20 14 April, the famous British magazine The Economist published a special report, pointing out that the third industrial revolution is going on in the world, and 3D printing technology is one of the representative technologies.
In the same year, US President Barack Obama identified "Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center" as the first manufacturing innovation center, and listed 3D printing technology as "Top Ten fastest growing industries in the United States" by Time magazine. Subsequently, it was written into the national development strategy by major countries such as the United States, Britain, Japan and China. Having said so much about the development of foreign 3D printing technology, let's take a look at the development of domestic 3D printing technology. Since 1990s, many schools in China have carried out research on 3D printing, such as Tsinghua University, which is dominated by FDM, Xi Jiaotong University, which is dominated by SLA, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which is dominated by SLS. 1994 successfully developed the first 3D printing equipment. Since 2000, Beihang University has successfully broken through the key technology of rapid prototyping of high-performance metal parts and its complete assembly technology for five years, making China the second country to master this technology. In addition, Hunan Huashu High-tech Co., Ltd. has become the only enterprise in the world with a complete SLS industrial chain.