Utilizing 3D Printing to Design Lovely Eyewear

Based mostly within the vibrant metropolis of Montevideo, Uruguay, our April 2019 Hackers of the Month are creating a brand new mannequin of manufacturing, fashion, and sustainability for eyewear with their start-up firm, MVD Frames.

Andres Roppa and Alberto Menestrina are each long-time product engineers who come from an industrial engineering background. Their first publicity to 3D printing was round 2002 when a university journey took them to the wind tunnel at an engineering facility that was evaluating the facade efficiency for a future constructing; the size mannequin was created utilizing stereolithography.

A number of years later in 2011, they each began taking part in design contests for 3D printing sponsored by Shapeways and Materialise, in addition to others. Additionally presently, Alberto was working full-time at a product design studio that centered on electrical gadgets and used speedy prototyping each day. As a result of there have been no industrial grade printers in Uruguay on the time, the design recordsdata needed to be despatched to Brazil for printing!

In a considerably totally different timeline for many of us, they had been capable of reduce their tooth on SLS (selective laser sintering) additive manufacturing processes however then moved on to smaller scale FDM (fashioned deposition modeling) processes to create their extremely fashionable MVD frames.

The place did the inspiration come for the MVD Frames enterprise mannequin? Andres explains, “We’re rethinking find out how to make eyewear, and why we must always make it within the first place. We develop merchandise which have extra which means for the consumer… by way of the consumer and never the trade, shifting away from mass manufacturing and consumption.”

The result’s nothing wanting superb. Utilizing primarily handbook sprucing strategies, Andres and Alberto create gorgeous eyewear at a fraction of the price of high-end designer labels. The rationale behind this hands-on strategy speaks volumes, “Our challenge revolves across the concept of mixing digital with pure, so we’re utilizing hemp and espresso crammed PLA amongst different composite filaments from 3DFuel and different manufacturers to repeatedly take a look at new choices. We need to reveal how these supplies could be mixed with our design strategy to attain high-end high quality merchandise that may meet powerful necessities.”

The usage of 3D printing has allowed them to develop and fabricate fashions rapidly to validate their product concepts. The flip round time in having the ability to troubleshoot and reprint flawed designs has significantly lowered their improvement time in creating new concepts and merchandise.

“Our eyewear is born out of the digital period, however with a hand-crafted contact that makes every body distinctive. So, we mixed new applied sciences, like 3D printing, with pure supplies and handbook processes to create an progressive manufacturing methodology.”

“We design high-quality frames inside a multisize idea, with the consumer in thoughts, making a stronger and longer lasting bond. Our collections adapt and evolve organically with out leftovers, as a result of that’s how nature does it, and that’s the way it ought to be.”

Why did they select eyewear? “Eyewear is the right product to enhance with 3D printing. Take customization, as an example; small scale manufacturing, assembly particular consumer wants, and so forth. For now, we’re concentrating on consolation and match whereas utilizing extra sustainable supplies. However some enhancements will not be that seen as a result of they’re associated to processes taking place backstage. As an example, our lens supplier could be very excited to search out that many points which might be associated to lens becoming and different lenses/body processes could be solved rapidly and in accordance with their wants. There are inherent issues with typical injected and acetate frames, that we are able to keep away from because of the fabric and know-how.”

What’s it about 3D printing that makes this design so intriguing? “Moreover the eyewear itself, which we design by benefiting from the inherent advantages of additive manufacturing, we’re always utilizing the know-how to unravel particular every day points on different processes we’d like. We print personalized templates for laser engraving eyewear elements as an example, amongst different fast options to help in meeting. These options are easy, nothing fancy, however they’re so fast and low value, which is good for us at this level.”

“We hope to make extra comfy, higher becoming eyewear for the consumer. We deal with making every design and assortment a bit extra superior by way of benefiting from additive manufacturing. This strategy has additionally helped different eyewear startups for which we’ve got developed designs with particular necessities. Other than eyewear, we did some design and printing for human and animal orthosis and technical aids. This was a aspect challenge that Alberto was main with one other staff.”

One other good thing about utilizing 3D printing of their manufacturing is the collaboration issue. It has allowed them to attach with world purchasers on a number of tasks. It has opened a brand new means of working, making enterprise alternatives accessible to them that might have been unattainable to implement 10-15 years in the past.

As is obvious of their design and manufacturing course of, they hope to see 3D printing dramatically cut back the environmental influence of manufacturing, and never simply one other medium to create much more ineffective plastic devices – and so they always critique themselves on this metric as properly!

For now, Andres and Alberto wish to increase their eyewear designs by collaborating with different manufacturers, whereas taking the time to ensure that individuals are educated within the design, conceptualization and accountable use if 3D printing know-how. A measure of their success appears to lie of their notion that the human aspect of 3D printing is what must be upgraded as a result of the know-how is already getting cheaper and simpler to make use of extraordinarily rapidly.

We sit up for seeing much more designs and the world domination of the 3D printed eyewear market by Andres and Alberto! For extra of what MVD is as much as, you may go to their web site right here:

www.mvdframes.com