3D Printing Museum

Many items to do with 3D Printing, in the news today, are about processes, materials and applications that are produced on new machines now, yet 3 decades ago some of the lucky few were quietly making history in many and varied application areas that some companies kept quiet to gain competitive advantage. We wish to pay tribute to those pioneers in the 3D Printing museum. Several corporations are helping to display their applications that were ground breaking at that time and even now all those years later can teach others what is possible.
Other applications that show recent developments of materials and machines are also included as well as developments in 3D CAD and Digital Manufacturing that includes Formative, Additive and Subtractive Technologies (FAST) these are all part of the global Time Compression Technology movement.

By 1999 other companies than those mentioned in above menu selection were known to own an SLA but did not publicly offer bureau services. They were:
BAe (Lostock & Warton) DRA Malvern, Ford Brentwood, Lever, Rolls Royce, Williams, Jordan, Kinnear Duffort, MCP, Cardiff Uni, Roush, Ogle, Portsmouth Uni.

In 1989 Frank Green sets up the UK's first SLA service Bureau dealing with Rapid Prototyping resin models for many high tech companies in the UK and from Europe.

This new technology seen on a TV programme called "Tommorows World" and several design engineering magazines come to Sileby, a small village just north of Leicester which completely changed many individuals lives.

With SLA 1 operating with MS-DOS, 386 Slicing PC, 3D CAD was CADDS 4X, data transferred with 1/2 inch Magnetic Tape drive. Most Data was wireframe with some surfaces. Several months passed before Solid Modellers were used.

Brief but important moment in time!

The picture below is Oak Business Centre but back in February 1990 (when Jan Andrzejewski joined as StereoLithgrapher) it was Greenoak Knitwear. Where the blue car is shown was the original entrance to Lasercad Precision Models Ltd.

People who can help to complete this part of history would come from companies like Rolls Royce (Turbine Blade), Rover (Front Grill), Mr Bird, Schlegel (Car Door Seals), Ron Jamison (Plane Model), Dowty (Manifold), The wax impeller model, Rolls Royce, Bristol, Lucas, Rank, PDG & Iberomoldes.
Also from the rest of the Lasercad team, Sales - Terry Percival & Finishing - Chris Sunderland.
News clippings from:
The Engineer, 14th September 1989 - "The desk-top entrepreneurs"
CADCAM International October 1989 - "Prototype Pioneers"
PRW Machinery 14th October 1989 - "SLA modelmakers seeks to enter plastics field"
Engineering July/August 1990 - "Growing pains and making models"
It was at Lasercad that a new 3D modelling software called Pro/Eng was considered.

The company did not last long with the breakup of Directors in November 1990, with the SLA machine stolen and relocated to another prototyping company.
In the photo below the building has gone through many changes and where the blue car is parked was the entrance to Lasercad.