Jul 20, 2017 | By Tess
Italian eyewear giant Safilo Group has taken a leap into the future of eyewear-making with its new OXYDO SS 2017 sunglasses collection. Manufactured in partnership with Belgian 3D printing company Materialise, the collection features a number of avant-garde (and eye-grabbing!) 3D printed frames.
The new OXYDO collection, which consists of four different frame styles, was designed in collaboration with Francis Bitonti, a New York-based artist known for incorporating digital and computer-controlled technologies into his work. Notably, the artist has worked significantly with 3D printing technologies, creating the unforgettable 3D printed Bristle Dress in 2014.
By bringing Bitonti on for the project, Safilo hoped to infuse its innovative sunglasses line with his cutting-edge creativity, and to show how 3D printing could shape the future of the eyewear industry.
“We wanted to walk a line between minimalism and opulence and we focused on leveraging the capabilities of 3D printing to produce very fine ornamentation while keeping a very minimal silhouette,” said the designer.
“We were also interested in how the next generation of ornamentation might look. As we are able to produce finer and finer structures, we started to question on a deeper level, how one might ornament these microstructures and not simply be a rational expression of efficiency.”
As we’ve seen, additive manufacturing technologies are being used more and more by the eyewear industry, as the technology opens up possibilities for new and more complex designs, more customization, and even better comfort. The comfort factor is largely due to the ability to create frames with less overall material, making them lighter on the wearer’s face.
From an aesthetic perspective, the OXYDO SS 2017 collection rethinks classic eyewear styles, such as cat-eye and rounded frames, and adds a unique style, from the red winged-tips of one pair to the green lattice frame of another. According to Materialise, the styles could only have been made using 3D printing.
The glasses were manufactured at Materialise’s Certified Additive Manufacturing facility, which has worked extensively in the eyewear field. The frames were each 3D printed from Polyamide 12 and were carefully post-processed using Materialise’s Luxura treatment, which offers a “premium consumer-grade finish” for printed products.
Alireza Parandian, the head of wearables at Materialise, commented on the partnership, saying: “It is always our goal at Materialise to not only meet industry standards but to raise them. With Safilo, and their leadership in the eyewear industry, we have found a partner that values this goal equally. The eyewear industry and Additive Manufacturing have built a symbiotic relationship, where each helps the other raise its standards and challenge expectations constantly. I’m looking forward to where this partnership leads next.”
The OXYDO SS 2017 collection marks the first time Safilo and Materialise have collaborated.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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