Charles (Chuck) Hull, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of 3D Systems, was honored during Engineers Week (Feb. 19-25, 2017) with the Washington Award by the Western Society of Engineers.

Charles (Chuck) Hull.The Washington Award is conferred upon an engineer whose professional attainments have preeminently advanced the welfare of human kind.

Hull is known as the “father of 3-D printing” for his invention of the 3-D printing process known as Stereolithography, a term Hull coined and patented in 1986.

Stereolithography is an additive manufacturing process that produces parts by focusing a ultraviolet light on thin layers of liquid polymer. The first working Stereolithography machine, the “SLA-1” successfully printed a part in March 1983. The SLA-1 could produce a prototype part in just a few hours, compared to weeks to manufacture it using traditional machining methods.

Today, 3D Systems continues to produce 3-D printers, including precision printers for medical and healthcare solutions. Hull is identified as the inventor on 85 US patents in addition to many other patents around the world in the areas of ion optics and 3-D printing.