Florenradica is a design company located near Florence, Italy, that manufactures prototypes and accessories for fashion companies. Their wide range of clients covers various product portfolios, including shoes, heels, bags, buttons, jewelry accessories, and more.
With a background in traditional woodworking, the company found it very challenging to achieve quantitative orders in the fashion industry. They decided to explore new manufacturing methods that would reduce manual labor while maintaining product detail and quality.
．Transitioning from Traditional to Digital Manufacturing
After discovering 3D printing online, Florenradica explored further and found that 3D printing could produce items that CNC machines couldn't. Due to the high-precision printing time ranging from 6 to 60 hours, a stable printer with consistent output quality was needed. Florenradica tried several different brands of FFF 3D printers, but each printer required extensive maintenance and repeated adjustments to achieve stable quality.
It wasn't until they chose Ultimaker 3D printers, investing in their first Ultimaker 2+, that they found the finished products to be more precise and reliable. A few years later, they expanded their equipment, adding 27 more Ultimaker 2+, 13 Ultimaker 3, and two Ultimaker S5 printers to their workspace.
Marco Mascetti, a producer at Florenradica, explained, "With 3D printers, we can finally realize products that were previously impossible to produce." Before deciding on production equipment, we conducted extensive comparisons and evaluated many systems. Ultimaker printers have the key features best suited for us: reliability, high quality, and dual extruders.
．In-house Manufacturing
Every project at Florenradica is created in-house by the design team using CAD software. The items are prepared for printing using Cura software and sent to the printer. Because each Ultimaker printer is certified for safe automation, it can operate stably 24/7 without supervision.
．Choosing the Right Materials
Material selection is an important factor in the design process, not only considering the technical characteristics of each part but also ensuring the stability of the printing process. Designs often have complex geometries, requiring support materials, post-processing, and painting. Florenradica had tried different plastics, such as HIPS and PLA from various suppliers, but the results were not ideal.
Switching to Ultimaker PLA provided Florenradica with more reliable results, allowing them to use water-soluble PVA support material for easier post-processing. With their expanded equipment and increased workload, Florenradica uses approximately 60 kg of PLA per month.
After printing, the object and support material are dissolved in warm water (or regular cold water, though it takes longer), preserving the complete surface. The sample is then finished by sanding, priming, and spray painting, followed by a coat of paint.
Although traditional woodworking has not been completely abandoned, Ultimaker 3D printing now accounts for 40% of Florenradica's total sales, with Ultimaker 3D printing used for 95% of final parts and 5% of prototypes. Using 3D printers in the studio allows Florenradica to print dozens of different prototypes simultaneously, with at least a hundred different items printed daily. This provides greater flexibility for the rapid prototyping process and helps them meet product delivery dates.
With the Ultimaker S5 added to their workspace, they can print larger volumes, allowing objects that previously had to be split and segmented to be printed as a single piece.
FFF technology has improved the production time required for our products and significantly increased our orders, so we just purchased our 50th Ultimaker 3D printer in June 2018!
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Original article: https://ultimaker.com/en/stories/52707-producing-customized-fashion-solutions-with-ultimaker-3d-printers