There’s a reason why Josef Prusa’s invention shot him into the 3D printing stratosphere and landed him a place on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list - the printer is incredible. The Prusa RepRap kit is the unmistakable king of RepRap 3D printers. Takes a long time to build if bought as a kit.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the history of 3D printing, click here. Dr Bowyer’s RepRap printer with its “child”, another RepRap 3D printer it printed the plastic parts for. It wasn’t pretty and it doesn’t hold up against the far superior RepRap 3D printers that are about today, but in 2008 the Darwin was a big deal, and is looked back upon fondly today. The Darwin plays an important part in the history of 3D printing, and allowed people to now 3D print from home provided they had the technological know-how. Named after Charles Darwin, this is the 3D printer that really kickstarted the RepRap movement. This spurred on the open source 3D printing revolution that has led us to the cutting-edge FDM 3D printers we have today. It worked for $200 while other 3D printers costed $10,000+. It was basic, it looked like it was from the 80s, but it worked. The first RepRap 3D printer - RepRap Darwin That way, the RepRap movement could spread exponentially, with more printers in service to help others make their own 3D printers.
What was previously inaccessible became possible for anyone to have at home if you had enough tech know-how.Īnd if you were given the plastic parts 3D printed by a friend or someone else, you were morally obliged to print more plastic parts for anyone else who wanted a RepRap. These were the first ever low cost 3D printers DIY 3D printers you could build yourself. You could build one for a few hundred dollars if you got the plastic parts printed and then bought the electronics. The first RepRap 3D printer invented by Dr Bowyer was the RepRap Dawin, named after Charles Darwin who first theorized evolution.
He was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 for his services to 3D printing. The RepRap movement was founded by Dr Adrian Bowyer, then a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath, during 20. Learn more History of the RepRap movement and RepRap 3D Printing When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. An early RepRap printing extra RepRap parts.