[caption id="attachment_22375" align="alignright" width="249"] Ely Sachs[/caption]

The gala ceremony on the 26^th September at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole will see Professor Emanuel Sachs, Greg Morris and Dr Carl Deckard inducted into a list that includes the founding fathers of additive manufacturing such as Chuck Hull, Scott Crump and Hans Langer.

Whereas Chuck Hull and Scott Crump invented technologies with the implicit purpose of accelerating prototyping technologies, the theme running through the 2018 draft is an evolution towards manufacturing.

Although Dr Carl Deckard and Professor Ely Sachs were formulating selective laser sintering (SLS) and binder-jet printing respectively, back in the 1980s, both revealed in the TCT Podcast they were more focused on engineering-grade materials.

"The polymers used in stereolithography had minimal mechanical properties," said Professor Ely Sachs, who is also the co-founder of Desktop Metal, in the first of a series of interviews available on your podcast app (Search for TCT Podcast). "Our thrust at MIT was, let's move from just form and fit to actual engineering parts."

Carl Deckard and Ely Sachs were inventors of two almost ubiquitous technologies, but the third inductee, Greg Morris set about applying the techniques and proved a catalyst to the poster-child of series production 3D printing, the LEAP Fuel Nozzle.

"Greg is the first Hall of Fame inductee whose major contribution to the industry has been on the application rather than technology side," says James Woodcock, VP, Content, Strategy & Partnerships, Rapid News Communications Group. "He pushed the boundaries of what is possible with this technology and proved that additive manufacturing was capable of series production, in turn helping to validate the entire metal 3D printing industry."

The three inductees to the TCT Hall of Fame for 2018 will take to the Conference Stage at TCT Show on Wednesday 26th September at 11am for a panel session on the how additive manufacturing’s past can shape its future.

TCT Hall of Fame inductees for 2018:

• Professor Ely Sachs - Inventor of Binder-Jet Printing and Co-Founder of Desktop Metal


• Greg Morris - Founder of Morris Technologies


• Dr Carl Deckard - Inventor of the Selective Laser Sintering

• Adrian Bowyer – Founder of the RepRap Project


• Scott Crump - Inventor of Fused Deposition Modelling


• Chuck Hull – Inventor of Stereolithography Process


• Hans Langer – Founder of EOS


• Fried Vancraen – Founder of Materialise