The rate of progress in additive manufacturing with plastics is little short of staggering. In a few years, it has gone from being an exotic plaything for crazy inventors and well-funded research laboratories, all the way to a major disruptive technology that could well turn industrial manufacturing upside-down.
Additive manufacturing (AM, or 3D printing) began in earnest when stereolithography (SLA) was invented in Japan in the early 1980s.