Free Form Fibers was established in 2006 by Joseph Pegna, Ram Goduguchinta, and Kirk Williams. Pegna has been active in additive manufacturing since the late 1980s, with particular emphasis on LCVD in leading research programs at the University of California, Irvine; Rensselear Polytechnic Institute; and the University of Montreal.^a–c Goduguchinta (with Pegna as his advisor) and Williams both elucidated fundamental understanding of LCVD concepts in their doctoral theses.^d–h

Initially locating FFF in Plattsburgh, N.Y., the three built off a rich history of R&D in academia, in particular at the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, University of Texas at Austin, University of Connecticut, Uppsala University in Sweden, the Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie in Göttingen, Germany, and Johannes-Kepler Universität, in Linz, Austria.^i–n