Story of world’s first industrial-scale 3D printer is a story of sacrifice

Enrico Dini is not a cautious man. In 2005, the Italian adapted a piece of machinery from the shoe factory he worked in and made it print a robotic arm out of sand and resin. Buoyed by his success, the inventor realised that a machine with the ability to print stone objects could have a transformative effect on the housing industry, and started drawing up plans for the world’s first industrial-sized 3D printer. Soon after that, he left his lucrative job in Rome, remortgaged his house and stepped into the unknown.

“When I realised that this project should be my life project I sacrificed everything,” says Dini, 54. “I left my well-paid job then, because of debt, I ruined my relationship with my wife [who he later divorced] and that meant spending less time with my son. Then I had to sell my family apartment and I now have nothing left, I am really poor.

“But I am giving a dream to people. Giving my son [who is now 12] something to be proud of because his father did something important.

“We decide how to drive life. Most people have a pruden­tial approach to life; I am not one of them.”

An insight into Dini’s impetuosity came when I was setting up this interview. We briefly met at an event in London and, a few days later, I e-mailed him, suggesting we speak on the phone or have lunch the next time he was in England. His reply came zinging back five minutes later, inviting me to come and stay with him in his apartment by the sea, almost halfway between Rome and Pisa.

Like so many gifted people who end up changing the world, Dini has had to struggle to realise his dream. The inventor of the 3D printer comes from an illustrious line of thinkers: grandfather Ulisse Dini was a famous mathemati­cian and politician, and Enrico’s father, Egisto Giovanni Dini, built one of the most important bridges in Pisa and helped design various models of Vespa and a prototype for a heli­copter.