Hideo Kodama was awarded the prize

From: Shoichi Terashima (Nissin DTM  Co., Ltd.)
To: RP-ML
Date: Friday, September 29, 1995
e-mail on 09 22:
Subject: Hideo Kodama was awarded the prize
     The last May this year, Hideo Kodama of Japan was given 
the prize from the Lunk (spelling correct?) foundation of 
England, for praising the world firstest invention in the 
field of layer-by-layer photopolymerization.
     On Friday, 29 next week, the prize winning commemorative 
lecture meeting and the celebration party will be held in 
Nagoya city of Japan.  A participant fee: 15,000 yens.
Does anybody come?
Regards,
 Shoichi Terashima

Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 16:59:00 +0900
Subject: Follow-up Kodama's receiving the prize
     Follow-up of the Rank Prize celebration meeting for Hideo Kodama.
A hundred and several tens gathered at the meeting. 
     The prize in the field of opto-electronics was awarded to Kodama, 
however at the same time, Hull's contribution in development and 
commercialization was refered in the prize.

Kodama's works: 
     In respect to layer-by-layer light-polymerization process with liquid 
photosensitive resin, he not only offered the idea, but verified the 
usefulness of the process as 3-dimensional printer for 3D-CAD system.

Apr 1980, Patent application, 55-48210 (Japan).  Some ideas such the light 
          sources as lamp, laser beam and optical fiber were suggested.
Apr 1981, Article titled "A Scheme for Three-Dimensional Display 
          by Automatic Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Model", 
          Trans. IECE '81/4 Vol.J64-C No.4, where 
          he verified some build parameters of photo-solidification 
          and actually made some photo-solidified parts with using 
          lamp-mask process, and at the same time, he offered the idea 
          of light irradiation from the bottom plate and also the X-Y 
          plotter driven optical-fiber system.
          Already at this moment, he thought of the meaning of 
          information that a three-dimensional expression has, and of a 
          usage of his idea as an output device for computer system.
Nov 1981, Article titled "Automatic method for fabricating a three-
          dimensional plastic model with photo-hardening polymer", 
          Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol.52, No.11, pp.1770- 
          1773, American Institute of Physics, 
          where he tested three types of method, which were the lamp 
          exposure method from the top and the bottom respectively, 
          and the scanning fiber mounted on X-Y plotter method.  
          He discussed experimental result upon several important build 
          parameters, and also discussed about resolution and dimensional 
          accuracy.  The parts he actually made were very transparant.
Nov 1981, The patent notification, 56-144478, which later expired without 
          passing the right for examination-claim required for patent 
          filing procedure.

References:
Marshall Burns: "Automated Fabrication", pp.45-48, Prentice Hall (1993).
--
     This is just to widely introduce to RP-ML world the Kodama's achievements 
as a pioneer of RP industries today, and neither he knows posting of this 
article nor he has any specific relation with the poster of this message.
Please permit if there are errors and omissions.
     And the poster hopes his studies to be remembered in the RP history.
Thank you,
 Shoichi Terashima