3D printing is getting to another level and is changing the traditional industry. More and more companies are moving towards 3D printing for its adaptability and capacity to produce on demand. Being true innovation leveraging tool, 3D printing is at its beginning and future looks bright.
3D-printing is a manufacturing process that allows the conversion of a 3D digital file into an object. No matter the used 3D-printing technology, the object is made layer by layer.
3D-printing is truly unique: it has the capacity to produce locally and autonomously and to turn ideas into object in a matter of a few hours. It allows you freedom in materials sourcing, bio-degradable, bio-based, recyclable as well as stronger materials such as carbon polymeres, flax fiber, fiber glass or flex materials like copper or wood. It is also a great solution to manufacture locally without depending on suppliers on the other side of the planet.
3D printing brings an ecological. This technology allows to quickly produce prototypes and therefore be fast on new product development. It is a good tool that develops circular economy: thermoplastic recycling by grinding them and building filament, to then create new objects. It allows Makers* to avoid planned obsolescence by fixing objects themselves with printing missing or damaged parts.
Wyve chose 3D-printing to work on performance, eco-design and local manufacturing of surfboards. 3D-printing allows to build an optimized structure that takes many mechanicals parameters into consideration (speed generation, control, vibration absorption). This manufacturing process is done in our micro-factory in Anglet. Doing it in-house allows us to manage better materials stocks, gain efficiency and have a lean production flow. Every board is custom and produced on demand, over-stocking doesn’t exist.
France is part of those 3D-printing pioneers. Today some people are still doubting how useful 3D-printing is, just like some did about the internet in the 2000’.
Talking about the future of 3D-printing, there’s everything to do still and Wyve chose to be part of this chapter.
*Maker = an inventor that builds useful objects him/herself for its everyday life, thanks to 3D printing.
