The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were out of this world, and they inspired silversmithing business Silver Lady to work with Barnsley DMC 02’s MakerLab to produce a 3D printed piece of military silverware using Formlabs technology.
Funded by the Digital Innovation for Growth (DIfG) programme, MakerLab helps small and medium-sized businesses grow their business with new products and ideas.
Silver Lady’s new 3D crest design needed making from resin to capture lots of detail, which would then be silver-plated with traditional processes.
Additive-X and MakerLab’s Kevin Askew helped connect Silver Lady with a digital designer, with Kevin overseeing its production via MakerLab.
3D printing is a technology Silver Lady has been interested in for some time. “We were very impressed with the digital technology we saw in the MakerLab, and it was great to talk to the experts about its potential uses in our business,” said MD Rick Jennings, “We’ve been wanting to explore using 3D printing to turn our intricate designs into models for quite some time but never known where to start or who to talk to.”
Before exploring 3D printing, Silver Lady made silver hallmark-filled models by hand with forms moulded in wax and then resin. Being able to have 3D printed models eliminates the need for hand-modelling and produces consistent models with every print.
Rick said: “Once we have the CAD programme written for a product, 3D printing offers a much quicker and more cost-effective model-making process, enabling us to deliver more orders without compromising on our essential quality requirements. We will still commission some handmade models, especially for bespoke items, but 3D printing will be beneficial for creating the models we need for repeat orders of popular designs.”
It’s fantastic to see how 3D printing helped Silver Lady recreate an intricate design without the manual labour typical of hand-modelling.
Silver Lady wanted to produce a clean-cut model with no imperfections but didn’t want to invest in 3D printing technology in-house. MakerLab provided a 3D printing service with the help and advice of Additive-X.
We wish Silver Lady the best in all future endeavours!
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Image credit: Yorkshire Business Daily.