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Five Global 3D Printing Pioneers Inducted at the Inaugural TCT Hall of Fame Awards http://ift.tt/2xCQAmY It was a busy week at the 22nd TCT Show in Birmingham, which just ended yesterday. Many innovative companies used the international trade fair event as an opportunity to showcase their latest printers, software, materials, and other products. The event kicked off on Tuesday with the annual TCT Awards, sponsored by SLM Solutions, Materialise, 3ecruit, and Somos, with supporting partner Innovate UK. The awards were a little different than in previous years, as five global 3D printing pioneers were announced and inducted for the first time into the newly established TCT Hall of Fame.
The TCT Expert Advisory Board, made up of 25 experts and innovators from around the world, selects the nominees, which are then submitted to TCT Magazine readers and the global 3D printing community. Then, they vote on the five people they believe have made the most significant impacts, either toward inventing or developing important technologies for the greater additive manufacturing industry. These five “pillars of additive manufacturing” began with RepRap project founder Dr. Adrian Bowyer. The former mechanical engineering lecturer at the University of Bath created the RepRap, or Rapid Replicating Prototyper, in 2005, with a goal of making a useful self-replicating device – a 3D printer in this case – that would ensure its own evolution and distribution. He wanted to develop a 3D printer that would be capable of printing most of its own components, and according to the TCT Hall of Fame, this “was the driving force behind the rapid spread of 3D printing from the industrial to consumer audiences.”
Dr. Bowyer retired from teaching in 2012 to concentrate on the RepRap Project and his company, RepRapPro Ltd., which closed in early 2016. Next up in the new TCT Hall of Fame, we have Chuck Hull, the founder, CTO, and former President of 3D Systems. In 2014, Hull was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his patented invention of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing and co-creation of the STL file format. Visitors to the National Inventors Hall of Fame can view a 3D printed bust of Hull and the first 3D printer he invented, the SLA-1, which is also a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.
Dr. Hans Langer, entrepreneur and founder of family-owned EOS, is the third inductee into the TCT Hall of Fame. EOS opened its doors in 1989, and is now one of the top 3D printing companies in both polymer and metals, currently employing over 1,000 people; it was honored as a 3D printing game changer two years ago and recently welcomed a new CEO. Dr. Langer, who won the SME Additive Manufacturing Industry Achievement Award at RAPID 2016, is an active leader and investor in over 20 companies, including DyeMansion, ceramics additive manufacturing company Lithoz, and 3YOURMIND.
The co-founder, CTO, and Chief Innovation Officer of Stratasys and the inventor and patent holder of fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing, Scott Crump, was also inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame.
Stratasys is one of the most forward-thinking companies in the industry, having worked on production parts for race cars, aircraft, and factory tools. The company debuted its Continuous Build 3D Demonstrator in May, which Crump calls “an important milestone” for Stratasys’ vision to introduce additive manufacturing technology into volume production environments.
The final inaugural inductee into the TCT Hall of Fame is Wilfried ‘Fried’ Vancraen, the founder and CEO of Materialise, a company that is “always there to push the boundaries of what is possible.”
On a mission to use 3D printing technology to increase product development that would bring about a better world, Vancraen founded Materialise in 1990, when it was the first rapid prototyping bureau in the Benelux region. He noted three big challenges, which the company works to overcome with each new innovation – creating a quality 3D printing service, making better software, and realizing the potential in the technology for medical applications, in addition, continuing on even when 3D printing medical applications fail.
Materialise also won a TCT Award this year – the Industrial Product Application award – for its work with Philips Lighting on reinventing tools for its light bulb production lines. Congratulations to all of the new TCT Hall of Fame inductees from 3DPrint.com! Discuss this and other 3D printing stories at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts in the comments below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 29, 2017 at 09:39AM
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