Reinventing the Eyewear Industry Using Additive Manufacturing: EOS
By Dillian Drake
In the latest Additive Snack podcast episode, Katie Brandeau, the Chief Product Officer of Fitz Frames, joined podcast host, Fabian Alefeld, to discuss how Fitz Frames creates custom eyewear for children with the snap of a camera, or more specifically, a selfie. Their story is a prime example of how Additive Manufacturing (AM), combined with smartphones, scanning, and the web, have harmonized to change mass production to mass customization.
Fitz Frames founder Heidi Hertel discovered a need for children’s customizable eyewear when her two young daughters needed glasses, but conventional eyewear was not the right fit. And, the glasses that were available made from traditional manufacturing fit poorly and didn’t allow for her children’s active lifestyle – breaking easily. Hertel has a better idea: better design, better manufacturing, and improved customer experience.
Through Fitz Frames, Hertel and her team have displayed how AM continues to be a disruptive technology, pushing the limits of part performance, sustainability, and automation all while decreasing manufacturing complexity.
Fitz Frames’ unique approach to a mature industry is rewriting the rules; while traditional manufacturing is not going to be replaced overnight, there are options that can eliminate time, cost, and waste during both production and unnecessary stock.
Looking towards the future, these manufacturing developments also open a world of gathering and utilizing metadata by way of new software that can easily be downloaded to your personal device. This is just the beginning for these product developers, and soon that same approach could be adopted across many other industries leading to more self-guided care and personalization.
Want to know more about Fitz Frames’ business model and using additive manufacturing successfully? Then listen to the latest Additive Snack podcast episode and learn about:
- How Fitz Frames recognized a need in the children’s eye care market and created a solution that included additive manufacturing
- Guidance for engineers who want to know if an additive manufacturing solution is right for their application
- How scan to print features can create truly customizable products in a fraction of the time.
- Considerations and mistakes companies make when incorporating additive manufacturing into the design process and product creation.
This content was originally published on the EOS website.
