So how does this "Stereolithography Apparatus" even work?

So how does a 3-D printer work?

3-D printing food (and 3-D printing in general) is a very hard thing to be able to understand. It requires very precise angles of attack when it comes down to building the objects in the 3-D printing process.

Today's blog is to show you how 3-D printers actually are able to 3-D print the objects that they are commanded to print.

3-D printing, scientifically known as Additive Manufacturing is the process of stacking (adding) many 2-D layers on top of each other to make a 3-D object. The simplicity of 3-D printing an object depends on how many layers the object must have (which is why making something like a burger is very hard for a 3-D printer to do).

There are three methods that a 3-D printer can use to print objects and one of the three possible methods is programmed in the software of the printer's computer. The first method is to use a pool of chemicals that solidify when an infrared or ultraviolet light is shone upon it. The laser moves along a thin layer of liquid, drawing the required design.

A second method uses molten ink (or in some unique cases: chocolate or cheese!) that becomes solid when it emerges from the printer head. Designs are drawn by ink and again built up, layer by layer of 2-D shapes until the final product is complete.

The last method is to use layers of powdered material which are then heated to fuse the material together to translate the design into reality.


                                                                                                                                              

These processes of 3-D printing are carefully put into the software of the 3-D printer's computer system by the computer technicians that install the software onto the computer. My goal for my next blog is to find out more about how the instructions are put into the software of the 3-D printer's computer, or to make a long statement shorter, to find out more about the software of 3-D printer

The First 3-D Printer

The First 3-D Printer

3-D printing is a wonderful type of technology. It can create vast things like animated model body parts and even foods. But where did it start?

Technically, I should know....and I do. I will explain to you how 3-D food printing came to be. 

In 1984, inventor Charles Hull made the first ever patent of a stereolithography apparatus (SLA). The machine was called Portal and it was the first model of what we see today as a 3-D printer.

It started that year as well as Hull had the idea that if you point a highly focused UV light at a goopy material called a "photopolymer", the material would instantly turn solid. If you did this layer by layer, you could "print" an object into existence. Hull dubbed it "stereolithography" and BANG! That's how 3-D printing was born. Charles Hull then went on to invent the 3-D printing company 3D systems!

By the way, Charles Hull was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame this year!

3-D printing will soon reshape the world and now we know where it came from. My new goal for my next blog is to find out more about the software behind how people have the ability to 3-D print food.

Google serves 3D Printed Pasta in Employee Cafeteria