Badgemaster – the UK’s largest badge manufacturer, has produced 30,000 reusable badges for its customer, a leading UK retailer, using Photocentric’s photocentric light-curing resin 3D printing technology. Badgemaster decided to use photopolymer additive technology after it could not produce new tooling for the injection molding method to meet the lead time set by its customer.
Photocentric – the creator of the UV LCD technology and the producer of large-format 3D printers of this type – LC Magna, decided to help in the implementation of this timely order. After successfully testing the badges for additive manufacturing, Photocentric completed the order to produce 30,000 parts within three weeks. Although the cost of 3D prints was ultimately more expensive than the injection method, it was still acceptable. Regardless, however, Badgemaster was able to deliver the rush order to the customer, which was ultimately crucial to the entire endeavor.
“The original design concept was put on hold during the pandemic,” said Ian Bradbeer, Managing Director of Badgemaster, “our client became interested again when the situation calmed down. However, the short lead times made the creation of traditional tooling impossible (…) Photocentric was able to meet Badgemaster’s requirements and deliver the ordered products in a particularly short time ”.
The badges were produced using Photocentric’s proprietary resins on LC Magna 3D printers in Peterborough, UK. “We were excited to help Ian and the Badgemaster team with this project where our 3D printer farm was able to quickly produce the required quality components without the need for any additional tools,” says Sally Tipping, Photocentric Sales Director, ” enabling our customer to deliver to an important trading partner within a difficult time frame is a prime example of the strengths of additive manufacturing as a solution and highlights the benefits of our 3D LCD technology.
Source: Photocentric press materials