Materialise: The firm bringing 3D printing to the mainstream

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The adoption of manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing in eyewear and optics has, so far at least, been minimal. But the traditional eyewear hegemony, in which terms such as ‘Italian acetates’ and ‘handmade in France’ are regularly bandied about, is set to be challenged by companies that most opticians won’t yet have heard of. Companies like Materialise.

Established 25 years ago by Wilfried Vancraen, Materialise NV was the first rapid prototyping service provider in the Benelux region and is now the largest certified producer of 3D printed parts and medical implants in Europe. Clients include Airbus, Peugeot and most recently, Hoya Vision Care. The company was formed just as the technology was emerging and the two have effectively grown up together.

At the outset, the company focused on R&D of software solutions for the transfer of data to prototyping machines, because applications at the time were severely limited. Its software calculates surface 3D models from stacked image data such as computed tomography, confocal microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging through file segmentation.

The software side of the 3D printing is often overlooked, but is the key factor in the process, says Materialise corporate business development manager for wearables, Alireza Parandian.

‘People seem to have a preoccupation with hardware and its capabilities, but the truth is that it’s the software that makes the transformation of data. Over 60% of professional 3D printers in the world today use our software and so do many of our competitors in the 3D printing area.’

Printing technique

What was initially known as rapid prototyping has now developed into additive manufacturing, often used under the wider umbrella term of 3D printing. Both relate to a three-dimensional printing technique that starts from a 3D CAD drawing and results in an object manufactured in plastics, stainless steel, titanium, and an increasing range of more leftfield materials. Objects are built up in layers using materials available in polyamide powder, resin or plastic form.

Additive manufacturing is a relatively new method that focuses on the production of finished parts and other factors such as repeatability and traceability. The method is particularly attractive when conventional manufacturing technologies reach their limitations, which allows product designers to work in a completely different manner. For eyewear, this can be for functionality with part-free hinges and complicated skeletal structures that have great volume but little weight. Sporting elements such as special venting, can be repeatedly tested

‘3D printing and additive manufacturing allow us to make things in a profoundly different way to how we have done for the past 5,000 years,’ says Parandian.

‘In the middle ages people used hammers and later on came forging. The Egyptians invented casting and for the past 5,000 years we have been looking at ways of refining those techniques. Today, grinding and milling are extensively used in eyewear manufacturing, but these are all subtractive manufacturing techniques, where material is taken away to make a finished product.’

Luxury grade eyewear was the most obvious way that Materialise could enter the market with its additive manufacturing technology, but the sector was already crowded with long-established manufacturing techniques like CNC milling.

3D printing has been used for frame prototypes for many years. It allows designers to quickly get a feel for a particular style on the face before putting into production – at considerable expense. In 2011, German eyewear designer Mykita put its head above the parapet and launched the Mylon line of sunglasses produced using selective laser sintering – the first time the technology had been used for end user eyewear and not simply an unfinished first version.

Laser sintering is the primary method used by Materialise to produce its eyewear. Particles are selected for melting with the laser and the process is repeated hundreds of times for successive layers. Inside the printer, a large block of powder is formed, encasing up to 100 spectacle frame parts. The powder blocks are broken up and dusted off the frames ahead of finishing.

The company says it sets itself apart from other producers by providing the biggest and most advanced production technologies and finishing options under one roof, meaning it is not biased toward one material or technology, allowing it to listen to clients’ requirements and provide them with the best options for their needs.

This element of high level finishing is especially important in the realm of wearables and in particular, eyewear, where product comes into so much contact with the face and hands. Frames produced by Materialise might be created using high tech machines, but the elements of hand craftsmanship are very much evident on the company’s production lines. Frames are tumbled like a regular acetate or injection-moulded frame to ensure they have the best possible finish before a complex dyeing process is administered.

Reality check

3D printing itself isn’t new, but like most technologies, the cost has become more accessible, opening it up to more users. Desktop 3D printers have brought the technology into the public eye, but Parandian says there needs to be a reality check over what is actually possible: ‘In the very early days of rapid prototyping, researchers, in a quest to secure their funding, oversold the technology and its capability, but people still believe that version of the dream.

‘There is a lot at stake at the moment in the world of 3D printing, but especially in eyewear. Objective information needs to be provided to decision-makers so they can make the right choices going forward.’

As we walk around the company’s different production lines, where each product has specially tuned machinery and finishing, what Parandian means becomes apparent. That vision of a time when a 3D printer in a practice produces a pair of frames for a patient suddenly seems a long way off again.

But that isn’t to say that 3D printing isn’t for the here and now, far from it. Customisability and individualisation are both terms that practitioners will be aware of, be it from ophthalmic lenses or frames. Those two terms are at the very heart of the Materialise ethos, says Parandian, and the company has spent a long time working out how it can apply that ethos to the world of optics – an area which it considers as ‘game-changing’ and as such has seen heavy investment by the company.

Individualisation

When 3D printed eyewear was in its infancy, the concept of producing bespoke eyewear was very much at the forefront of designers’ minds. The easiest way to do this was to produce basic, semi-finished frames in a variety of dimensions and a suitable combination could be chosen for final production. Developments in object scanning technology and software have recently seen the development of systems for bespoke frames based on the data captured from a series of photographs of a patient’s face.

Parandian says Materialise is working on a system that will introduce even greater customisation to eyewear, to be launched later this year. Understandably, he is coy on the details of the functionality on offer, but says the company has a long history of developing technologies that significantly improve on what’s already in the market.

It’s difficult to doubt what he says. The company has already entered the consumer retail sector with individualised insoles for running shoes, a market where customised running shoes have existed for some time. Gait analysis, heel strike data and shape of the foot are all taken into account to produce a 3D-printed insole. This experience in the consumer market is likely to stand the company in good stead when it launches its bespoke eyewear solution later this year.

But it isn’t just the eyewear sector that Materialise hopes to make its mark on. A joint project with Hoya Vision Care has seen the creation of EyeGenius, a device that prompts the company to ask whether the days of the traditional Snellen and LogMAR charts could be nearly over.

EyeGenius is a smartphone-based goggle measurement system that calculates a patient’s prescription for the correction of fixation disparity. Practitioners have 60 vision tests at hand to carry out a complete eye examination, including refraction, binocular vision screening and visual function screening. Simulator software enables the patient to experience the corrected vision they will have with their new Hoya lenses.

In the past, smartphone-based optometric equipment has been hit and miss because technology moves at a rate where a device can become dated very quickly, leaving bracketry and holders obsolete – and because the traditional manufacturing runs are quite small, the cost of replacements or updates are high. With additive manufacturing, a new production run can be set up within five working days.

An additive future

Additive manufacturing is undoubtedly going to influence the eyewear and optics sectors over the next decade and forward-thinking practices can get in on the ground floor right now – not just with facial scanning or vision simulators, but with their own collections. As Parandian says, Materialise is prepared to work with individual practices on their own ranges. Mass volume manufacture will remain the dominant force as most optical consumers remain motivated by price factors.

Most 3D printing firms are OK with this, because they know that additive manufacturing offers an entirely different proposition – one in which opticians have the opportunity to be the masters of the own futures.