[MUSIC] Hi, in this video my goal is to
provide an overview of 3D printing. In particular, we'll examine how 3D
printing began, how printers work, the things they make,
where these things come from, and the type of materials
that they're made from. We"ll also discuss how you can get
access to a 3D printer for yourself. You may be surprised to learn that 3D
printers have existed for about 30 years. The first 3D printer was created by
a fellow named Chuck Hall back in 1986. Chuck came up with the idea for 3D
printing while using a ultraviolet light to harden paint that he was
putting on a coffee table. Using this experience as inspiration,
Chuck went on to invent a process for making 3D printed objects using
a focused beam of ultraviolet light to harden thin levels of a resin
in a successive manner. He called this process stereo lithography,
and it's still a main 3D
printing technology today. Chuck also invented a number of other
important aspects of the 3D printing process, including the STL file,
which is the dominant file format for nearly all 3D printed designs. We'll talk more about STLs
a bit later in this course. He also founded one of the world's
leading 3D printing companies, a company called 3D Systems. And since the mid-1980s, a number of
other 3D printing technologies have been developed and a variety of new
firms have entered the marketplace. The basic technology is not new. However, until recently, 3D printers
were very large and quite expensive. These printers were typically the size of
a refrigerator and cost $100,000 or more. Thus, these machines were mainly used
by large firms for creating prototypes. Then something happened a few years ago. The patents for several types of 3D
printing technologies began to expire. As a result, a number of new firms, mostly small startups,
began to enter the 3D printing market. The most notable new entrant was a company
called MakerBot, which was founded in Brooklyn in 2009 and was the first firm
to sell an affordable desktop printer. In fact,
I have one right here in front of me. This is MakerBot's first machine, called
the Cupcake, this was their first model. My son and I built this machine back
in 2010, and it still works and really formed the foundation for
the democratization of 3D printing. Since 2009, a number of new firms
have entered the desktop 3D printer market including Formlabs,
Printrbot, and Ultimaker. And you'll be learning a lot more about
Ultimaker during the course of this specialization. As a result of these new entrance, the size of a 3D printer has shrunk
from a refrigerator to a microwave. And the price has fallen from
$100,000 to $2,000 or even less. As a result, the number of 3D
printers is quickly expanding, and this tool is rapidly
becoming democratized. [MUSIC] [SOUND]