The South American firm MVD Frames are utilizing 3D printing to create superb, natural designs in eyewear whereas serving to the surroundings on the similar 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, 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 right now, Alberto was working full-time at a product design studio that centered on electrical units and used fast prototyping each day. As a result of there have been no industrial grade printers in Uruguay on the time, the design information needed to be despatched to Brazil for printing!
In a considerably totally different timeline for many of us, they had been capable of lower 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 make eyewear, and why we should always make it within the first place. We develop merchandise which have extra that means for the consumer… by way of the consumer and never the trade, shifting away from mass manufacturing and consumption.”
The result’s nothing in need of superb. Utilizing primarily handbook sprucing strategies, Andres and Alberto create beautiful eyewear at a fraction of the price of high-end designer labels. The rationale behind this hands-on method speaks volumes, “Our undertaking revolves across the thought 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 check new choices. We need to exhibit how these supplies might be mixed with our design method to attain high-end high quality merchandise that may meet powerful necessities.”
Using 3D printing has allowed them to develop and fabricate fashions shortly to validate their product concepts. The flip round time in with the ability to troubleshoot and reprint flawed designs has enormously diminished 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 handbook 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 ought to be.”
Why did they select eyewear? “Eyewear is the proper product to enhance with 3D printing. Take customization, for example; small scale manufacturing, assembly particular consumer wants, and so on. 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 occurring backstage. For example, our lens supplier could be very excited to search out that many points which are associated to lens becoming and different lenses/body processes might be solved shortly and in accordance with their wants. There are inherent issues with standard injected and acetate frames, that we are able to keep away from due to the fabric and expertise.”
What’s it about 3D printing that makes this design so intriguing? “In addition to the eyewear itself, which we design by making the most of the inherent advantages of additive manufacturing, we’re always utilizing the expertise to unravel particular every day points on different processes we’d like. We print custom-made templates for laser engraving eyewear elements for example, amongst different fast options to assist 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 snug, higher becoming eyewear for the consumer. We concentrate on making every design and assortment a bit extra superior by way of making the most of additive manufacturing. This method 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 facet undertaking that Alberto was main with one other group.”
One other advantage of utilizing 3D printing of their manufacturing is the collaboration issue. It has allowed them to attach with international purchasers on a number of tasks. It has opened a brand new means of working, making enterprise alternatives obtainable to them that may have been not possible 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 scale back the environmental impression 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 broaden their eyewear designs by collaborating with different manufacturers, whereas taking the time to ensure that persons are educated within the design, conceptualization and accountable use if 3D printing expertise. A measure of their success appears to lie of their notion that the human facet of 3D printing is what must be upgraded as a result of the expertise is already getting cheaper and simpler to make use of extraordinarily shortly.
We stay 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
