The South American firm MVD Frames are utilizing 3D printing to create wonderful, natural designs in eyewear whereas serving to the surroundings on the identical time.
Posted on January 28, 2019
by
Chris Morgan
Primarily based within the vibrant metropolis of Montevideo, Uruguay, our April 2019 Hackers of the Month are creating a brand new mannequin of manufacturing, type, 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 school 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 targeted on electrical gadgets and used fast prototyping every 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 completely different timeline for many of us, they have 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 trendy MVD frames.
The place did the inspiration come for the MVD Frames enterprise mannequin? Andres explains, “We’re rethinking the best way to make eyewear, and why we must always make it within the first place. We develop merchandise which have extra that means for the consumer… when it comes to the consumer and never the business, transferring away from mass manufacturing and consumption.”
The result’s nothing wanting wonderful. Utilizing primarily guide 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 method speaks volumes, “Our challenge revolves across the thought of mixing digital with pure, so we’re utilizing hemp and espresso stuffed PLA amongst different composite filaments from 3DFuel and different manufacturers to repeatedly take a look at new choices. We wish to exhibit how these supplies could be mixed with our design method to attain high-end high quality merchandise that may meet robust 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 with the ability to troubleshoot and reprint flawed designs has vastly lowered their growth time in creating new concepts and merchandise.
“Our eyewear is born out of the digital period, however with a home made contact that makes every body distinctive. So, we mixed new applied sciences, like 3D printing, with pure supplies and guide processes to create an modern manufacturing technique.”
“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 must be.”
Why did they select eyewear? “Eyewear is the right product to enhance with 3D printing. Take customization, as an illustration; 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 usually are not that seen as a result of they’re associated to processes occurring backstage. For example, our lens supplier may be very excited to search out that many points which are associated to lens becoming and different lenses/body processes could be solved rapidly and in response to their wants. There are inherent issues with standard 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? “Apart from the eyewear itself, which we design by profiting from the inherent advantages of additive manufacturing, we’re continually utilizing the know-how to unravel particular each day points on different processes we’d like. We print personalized templates for laser engraving eyewear components as an illustration, amongst different fast options to assist in meeting. These options are easy, nothing fancy, however they’re so fast and low value, which is right for us at this level.”
“We hope to make extra snug, higher becoming eyewear for the consumer. We give attention to making every design and assortment a bit extra superior when it comes to profiting from additive manufacturing. This method has additionally helped different eyewear startups for which now we have 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 workforce.”
One other advantage of utilizing 3D printing of their manufacturing is the collaboration issue. It has allowed them to attach with international shoppers on a number of tasks. It has opened a brand new manner of working, making enterprise alternatives out there to them that might have been inconceivable to implement 10-15 years in the past.
As is clear 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 – they usually continually critique themselves on this metric as nicely!
For now, Andres and Alberto want to increase their eyewear designs by collaborating with different manufacturers, whereas taking the time to be sure 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 look ahead to 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 possibly can go to their web site right here:
www.mvdframes.com
