Founded in 1878, Safilo was propelled to success and is now the second-largest producer of eyewear in the world. The company’s impressive portfolio boasts 25 luxury brands, such as Dior, Fendi, Jimmy Choo and Hugo Boss, as well as five of its own brands, including Carrera, Polaroid and Safilo.
Previously, the company produced its concept prototypes with a CNC machine, which the team would use as a template when manually developing the actual prototypes. This resulted in lengthy lead times and, if iterations were required, would also prove costly further down the production line.
To overcome the bottlenecks associated with traditional manufacturing, Safilo invested in a Stratasys J750 full colour, multi-material 3D Printer, which, as well as streamlining the prototyping workflow, also brought with it the opportunity to achieve greater prototype realism than previous methods allowed. Utilizing the 3D printer’s large build tray, the company can produce multiple variations of the frames in the same print job, increasing throughput and securing reduced developmental costs. Not only can the company produce full-color prototypes with textures and intricate designs built into the plastic, but it is able to do so in a fraction of the time.
“The ability to have our 3D printed concept prototypes mimic the exact same colour and texture as the finished product has significantly accelerated the development of new eyeglass frames,” says Daniel Tomasin, Product Sample Coordinator at Safilo. “In fact, with the removal of painting from the process, we can quickly respond to market trends and reduce our prototyping cycle from 15 hours to just three hours. This has slashed our developmental turnaround time by 60%, excluding post-processing, allowing us to accelerate our time-to-market and maintain our competitive edge with the launch of the latest fashion eyewear.”
