PHOTOCENTRIC – PRINTING PARTS FOR COVID19 Leave a comment
We have changed our business since the outbreak. LCD technology can make vast numbers of parts. We are using our 3D printer machines to help lots of people by printing many thousands of plastic parts every day. We invite anyone who wants to utilise our technology to get in touch with us.
Protective Face Shields
The demand for face shields for healthcare workers has been immediate and large – and Photocentric is ramping up production of face shields to meet this demand.
We have lots of LC Magna and LC Maximus 3D printers on site and are turning them all over to making parts for face shields.We are producing tens of thousands of them a day, and we’re enabling others to do so as well through providing the required files and video guidelines to get involved.
Liquid Crystal Magna
A standard Liquid Crystal Magna printer can print a full bed of 135 face shield separators. Time to print bed of face shield parts = 90 minutes with our fast printing technology.
Our efforts to help COVID19 – our products, how we came to work on them and what allowed us a company to act so quickly and diversify
The Italian ventilator valve story was the trigger for us to think about how we could help with making parts to support hospitals. Since the outbreak we have effectively changed our business. Our large format printers can make vast numbers of parts per day and we have mobilised both our Magna printers and our prototype large Maximus printers to produce various parts from masks, ventilator valves and more recently, protective face shields.
Another printer manufacturer – Prusa – released a design for a face shield made on filament printers. We wanted to maximise our printing however, so one of our engineers designed our own model. With demand from hospitals both local and further afield across Europe for face shields, our focus has now shifted to help with the PPE shortage and protect our health workers.
We will produce tens of thousands of visors each week and enable others to do so also, providing all the required how to guides and downloadable files via our website.
The beauty of additive manufacturing is the ability to react quickly and when needed. We had several printers used in house to make test parts for customers and trial new resins. We turned these as well as our large format Maximus printers that were being prepared for beta testers, over for immediate use on site, here in Peterborough. Our dedicated and enthusiastic team is perhaps the biggest factor, however. We have some very passionate colleagues who love 3d printing and want to help and are prepared to go the extra mile to make it happen. We knew our large format printers could make a difference quickly.
Within a day we can design, print and test a 3D printed part. If the part needs modifying, it can be iterated in the same day too, often several times! We can enable the manufacture of goods locally and at speed and scale. Consider the traditional manufacture of shield separators, with injection moulding you are looking at around 1,000 units per day. With our fleet of large format printers in-house, we can produce ten thousand of these per day.
For further information: www.photocentricgroup.com/printing-parts-for-covid-19
Our products, services and speciality
Since 2002 Photocentric have been manufacturing photopolymer resin, Patent holders in visible light curing technologies, over the last 20 years we have innovated in a broad range of applications:
Office Stamps
Where it all began with our patented unique concept called imagepac – pre- packaged photopolymer which simplifies stamp making.
Crystal clear polymer craft stamps
We are the world’s largest and most trusted manufacturer of craft stamps, all made using our patented image photopolymer package. (Since 2013 we have also made clear stamps in Phoenix, AZ to supply the USA with a “Made in USA” product).
3d Printing
More recently, we moved into the manufacture of 3D printers. We applied our understanding of photopolymerization in the visible light part of the spectrum to unlock the power of using widely available, high resolution LCD screens in 3D printers – today we are known for being world leaders in LCD 3D printing.
Our 3D vision is to enable custom mass manufacture, through providing disruptive, fast large format machines and functional materials. These have been developed for a range of applications, one strong one is dentistry, in particular for aligner manufacture.
Other sectors we provide solutions for include the entertainment, industrial and figurine industries.
