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When was the 3D printer invented?

The origins of 3D printing date back to the early 1980s, with Dr. Hideo Kodama developing early concepts and Chuck Hull patenting Stereolithography (SLA) in 1984. By 1988, the first commercial printer, the SLA-1, was released.During the 1990s and early 2000s, this technology—then called "rapid prototyping"—was largely confined to expensive industrial and engineering environments, serving as a specialized tool for creating prototypes without traditional tooling costs.The landscape shifted significantly around 2005 with the RepRap project. This open-source initiative aimed to create self-replicating machines, which democratized the technology and sparked a global maker movement.This evolution transformed 3D printing from a closed industrial domain into an accessible, versatile tool used by hobbyists, artists, and small businesses worldwide, ranging from home workshops here in South Africa to high-tech aerospace manufacturing.