Badgemaster 3D prints reusable name badges for high street retailer

Badgemaster has produced a new reusable name badge for a high street retailer thanks to a rapid upscale in manufacture with Photocentric’s LCD 3D printing technology. The British-based badge manufacturer had produced a reusable name badge design, featuring a plastic (High Impact Polystyrene) injection molded back component, which was original to be tooled and manufactured by a molding company. The lead time requested by the customer – to tie in with a major rebrand launch – did not allow time to have new tooling manufactured, leaving the new product in limbo. Photocentric was able to step in to supercharge manufacture and produce the required 30,000 components with its own printing farm of LC Magna 3D LCD printers within just three weeks.

“The original design concept for our badge product had been put on hold during the pandemic,” said Ian Bradbeer, managing director, Badgemaster. “Our customer then renewed its interest once the situation eased. However, the short lead time meant that tooling was impossible. As a proud ‘Made in Britain UK manufacturer’ ourselves, we were keen to look at Photocentric as another innovative UK manufacturer to provide a solution for us. Photocentric were responsive to Badgemaster’s requirements and were able to meet the volume requirements in a particularly short lead time.”

Badgemaster knew of Photocentric’s additive manufacturing capabilities and had kept track of developments during the pandemic when it built a large number of machines (a 3D printing farm) to manufacture components for face mask visors for the NHS and Care Homes. Badgemaster Managing Director Ian Bradbeer approached Photocentric to determine whether it could manufacture the name badge component to be able to satisfy its own customer’s demand on a very tight time schedule.

After successfully conducting product trials to determine whether the component could be manufactured using this process, Badgemaster placed an order for 30,000 components to be delivered to them over a three-week period. The component was manufactured using Photocentric’s 3D polymers on its LC Magna 3D printers in Peterborough. Whilst the components were more expensive than the equivalent injection molded component, they were available at what was deemed to be a commercially acceptable premium (a factor of 2.5) and without the need to lay down an expensive injection mold tool.

“We were thrilled to assist Ian and the team at Badgemaster for this project in which our print farm was able to deliver a rapid turnaround of components at the quality required, with no tooling necessary,” said Sally Tipping, sales director, Photocentric. “Allowing our client to deliver for an important high street partner in a challenging timeframe is a great example of the strengths of additive manufacturing as a solution, and it emphasizes the benefits of our LCD 3D technology.”