Longest running 3D printer in the world
Things that happened in 1990: first McDonalds opens in Russia, Nelson Mandela is freed, Hubble Space telescope is launched and West Germany wins the World Cup. And less notable, Materialise installs its first 3D printer. These images are of what I believe to be the longest running operational 3D printer in the world. This 3D Systems SLA 250 was installed here in Leuven in July of 1990 by our CEO Fried Vancraen.
It has been working diligently for Materialise since then. In the loving care of our maintenance team the machine has been working for 20 years, 3 months and 21 days. For 7418 consecutive days this stereolithography machine has been in service with us. And you know what amazes me most? It still works, we still use it to fulfill your orders. Its also not the only one from that era. We have several 3D Systems machines that still work that we obtained around the same time. There will be some older test machines out there and maybe some in a broom cupboard but I”m pretty sure that this is the oldest printer that is still in use in the world.
Hats off to the people at 3D Systems for some good “built to last” 3D printer engineering!
