Photocentric Delivers 30K Name Badges for Badgemaster in Three Weeks
British manufacturer Badgemaster has produced a new reusable name badge for a high street retailer thanks to a rapid upscale in manufacture with Photocentric’s LCD 3D printing technology.
The British-based badge manufacturer had produced a reusable name badge design, featuring a plastic (high impact polystyrene) injection moulded back component, which was originally to be tooled and manufactured by a moulding company. The lead time requested by the customer – to tie in with a major rebrand launch – did not allow time to have new tooling manufactured, leaving the new product in limbo. Photocentric was able to step in to supercharge manufacture and produce the required 30,000 components with its own printing farm of LC Magna 3D LCD printers within just three weeks.
Ian Bradbeer, Managing Director at Badgemaster, said: “The original design concept for our badge product had been put on hold during the pandemic. Our customer then renewed its interest once the situation eased. However, the short lead time meant that tooling was impossible.
“As a proud ‘Made in Britain manufacturer’ ourselves, we were keen to look at Photocentric as another innovative UK manufacturer to provide a solution for us. Photocentric were responsive to Badgemaster’s requirements and were able to meet the volume requirements in a particularly short lead time.”
Badgemaster knew of Photocentric’s additive manufacturing capabilities and kept track of developments during the pandemic when it built many machines (a 3D printing farm) to manufacture components for face mask visors for the NHS and care homes. Ian Bradbeer approached Photocentric to determine whether it could manufacture the name badge component to be able to satisfy its own customer’s demand on a very tight time schedule.
After successfully conducting product trials to determine whether the component could be manufactured using this process, Badgemaster placed an order for 30,000 components to be delivered to them over a three-week period. The component was manufactured using Photocentric’s 3D polymers on its LC Magna 3D printers in Peterborough. Whilst the components were more expensive than the equivalent injection moulded component, they were available at what was deemed to be a commercially acceptable premium (a factor of 2.5) and without the need to lay down an expensive injection mould tool.
“We were thrilled to assist Ian and the team at Badgemaster for this project in which our print farm was able to deliver a rapid turnaround of components at the quality required, with no tooling necessary,” said Sally Tipping, Sales Director at Photocentric. “Allowing our client to deliver for an important high street partner in a challenging timeframe is a great example of the strengths of additive manufacturing as a solution, and it emphasises the benefits of our LCD 3D technology.”
To learn more about Photocentric and how its LCD 3D printing technology can benefit your business, visit www.photocentricgroup.com, or contact the team using the details listed below. Alternatively, click here to read more news from Photocentric.
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