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Glasses 3D printing played a key role at this year’s Opti optical trade fair in Munich
The Opti optics trade fair, organized by the GHM Gesellschaft für Handwerksmesse mbH, has been held at the Munich exhibition center every year since 1998 at the beginning of each year. This is an international trade fair with the aim of presenting the latest trends and developments in the entire optical spectrum to a specialist audience. It is also part of Opti’s claim to offer international market leaders a platform for product premieres as well as start-ups.
Glasses 3D printing receives forum in front of 27,500 trade visitors
A few days ago it was that time again. From January 15th to 17th, 2016, around 27,500 trade visitors from 81 countries admired the innovations from the world of ophthalmic optics presented there in 4 exhibition halls. The importance of 3D printing technology for production took up an unprecedented space bespoke glasses one.
Ingo Rütten, from the Central Association of Opticians, said: “3D printing is no longer exotic and will find its place on the market”. While there was initially skepticism about the new technology in the industry, some optical shops are now already offering 3D-printed frames tailored to the individual needs of their customers.
Hendrik Wieburg, who already produces several thousand glasses per year using 3D printing on behalf of optical shops, is even more confident than Rütten. “The 3-print will sooner or later revolutionize the optics industry,” says Wieburg with conviction.
Head scanner paves the way to customized 3D printing glasses
A decisive step towards the further spread of rapid prototyping in eyewear production is likely to come from the introduction of a (also presented at Opti 2016) head scanners which accurately captures the shape of the nose and other features of the face and feeds the 3D printer with the data obtained in this way (converted into CAD files). The individual adaptation of the glasses frame to the face shape of the respective wearer is thus perfected.
All in all, you don’t have to be a prophet to predict that eyewear 3D printing will be one of the trending topics of 2016.
Of course, we at 3D Activation have also recognized this trend and developed a corresponding solution for you. With the 3D glasses configurator, we even offer our customers the option of not just custom-printing glasses frames, but complete glasses, including lenses and hinges.
Have we aroused your interest in glasses and other individualized commodities from the 3D printer? Visit our homepage, where you can also find out more about our 3D online configurator.
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