Florenradica is a design company located near Florence, Italy, that manufactures prototypes and accessories for fashion companies. Their extensive client base covers a wide range of products, including shoes, heels, bags, buttons, jewelry accessories, and more.
With a background in traditional woodworking, the company found it 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 times ranging from 6 to 60 hours, a stable printer with uniform output quality was essential. Florenradica tried several different brands of FFF 3D printers, but each required significant maintenance and repeated adjustments to achieve stable quality.
Until they chose the Ultimaker 3D printer, they invested in their first Ultimaker 2+ and 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 workstation.
Marco Marsatti, a producer at Florenradica, explained, "With 3D printers, we can finally realize products that were previously impossible to produce." Before deciding to produce the accessories, we conducted extensive comparisons and evaluated many systems. Ultimaker printers have the most important features for us: reliability, high quality, and dual extruders.
．On-site Manufacturing
Each Florenradica project is created in-house by the design team using CAD software. Cura software is used to prepare items for printing and send them to the printer. Since each Ultimaker printer is certified for secure automation, it can operate stably 24/7 unattended.
．Choosing the Right Material
Material selection is a crucial factor in the design process, considering not only the technical characteristics of each part but also ensuring print stability. Designs often feature 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 more convenient post-processing. With the increased workload from their expanded equipment, 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 samples are then finished by sanding, priming, and spray painting, followed by a coat of paint.
While not entirely abandoning traditional woodworking, Ultimaker 3D printing now accounts for 40% of Florenradica's total sales. Ultimaker 3D printing is used for 95% of final parts and 5% of prototypes. Using a 3D printer 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 meet product delivery dates.
With the Ultimaker S5 added to their workstation, they can print larger volumes, allowing objects that previously had to be divided and printed in sections to now be produced as a single piece.
FFF technology has improved the production time required for our products and increased many orders, so we just purchased our 50th Ultimaker 3D printer in June 2018!
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Original article link: https://ultimaker.com/en/stories/52707-producing-customized-fashion-solutions-with-ultimaker-3d-printers