Sep 24, 2015 | By Tess
Dutch company Luxexcel, the only 3D printing service in the world to print transparent objects and to specialize in 3D printed optics has recently teamed up with Berlin based 3D printing service and design marketplace Trinckle to launch a customizable lens creator for its users.
Luxexcel uses a particular type of 3D printing technology, the patented Printoptical Technology, which allows them to manufacture transparent products in one job without the necessity for post processing like polishing, grinding and coloring the product after printing. The system is based on proven wide-format industrial inkjet printing equipment. Transparent droplets of a UV-curable polymer are jetted and then cured by strong UV-lamps which are integrated onto the print head. The results of the process are geometric or freeform shapes that may include transparent prisms or lenses, as well as full color 3D graphics and textures.
Trincle 3D for its part recently launched its Customizing Cloud Engine softwar which allows users to easily modify and customize any 3D model without any extensive CAD knowledge or experience. The software, to be implemented by 3D design companies, provides an accessible platform for users to customize the respective companies’ designs.
It is no wonder that the two companies have collaborated in order to offer users the first customizable 3D printed optical lens creator. Together both the “Lens Creator – Plano Convex Lens” and the “Lens Creator – Plano Concave Lens” were developed.
In order to create the custom additively manufactured lenses, customers need only to enter the lens parameters, such as focal length and lens diameter, into the interface in order to preview a digital 3D model of the lens. The Trinckle application then creates a 3D printable file, which is ready to order at the touch of a button from the expert 3D printers at Luxexcel.
Because the physics behind optical lenses are so well understood, they have proven to be a fitting subject for the Customizing Cloud Engine as their properties can be easily put into the software and can be modified in a straightforward fashion.
Typically, the manufacturing methods for optical lenses consist of injection molding and diamond turning, both quite costly and time-consuming processes. It has been Luxexcel’s goal to get away from this inaccessible mode of production to create a more democratic and prototype friendly means of manufacturing optics.
As the Luxexcel head of marketing and online business development, Peter Paul Cornelissen expresses, “With our new design tool we want to take the next step in opening up the world of optical development. Lowering the bar to make use of optimized optics for its application, and taking away the limitations of standard stock products will be a game changer for many designers that use optics in their products. The trinckle 3D customization software supports this development.”
Trinckle 3D’s CEO, Florian Reichle adds of the collaboration between the two companies, “Luxexcel is a great partner and a perfect use case for our software, because the automated creation of custom-made lens models is an obvious and essential add-on to their cutting-edge production technology.”
So far Luxexcel and Trinckle have launched two types of lens creators, though if all goes well in the wake of their release, more varied types of lens creators can be expected!
Posted in 3D Printing Company
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Your article is too good and it is very clear to know about 3D optics. Thanks For sharing your Blog with us.
arquit3D wrote at 9/24/2015 5:54:31 PM:
438 € (+ shipping) for a 1 cm diameter lens.. nice technology but overpriced.
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