The evolution and development of the lighting industry finds its origin in the completely modern attention to the care of the interior environments, not only the domestic ones but also the professional ones, of retail and urban outdoor furniture. Many lighting products display extreme attention to design details and the consequent recurrent use of rapid prototyping technologies for tests and also for the production of unique products. In this sector, more than in any other, aesthetics has an important importance, the materials used most in addition to plastic in the various variations of opacity and transparency are steel and zamak.
The technologies available today make it possible to support both the prototype and production phases in a valid and effective way. As for the lighting sector very often when it is necessary to make tests on the light effects it is possible to realize prototypes in stereolithography using transparent material if it is a single piece or a little more than one or with replicas from silicone mold in the case in which it is necessary to produce a pre-series.
The polyurethane resins used for casting in silicone molds can also be pigmented to obtain a color close to a reference RAL. The particular rapid prototyping products can also be painted and metallised to obtain trendy hi-tech effects.
The alternative in the moment in which it is also useful to test the definitive material is to produce the details of mechanical processing from the solid to be able to carry out all the necessary tests on them. Participation in trade fairs in this sector is very frequent, so that in many cases the production of prototypes with rapid prototyping technologies or with traditional mechanical processing is useful to collect feed-backs from one’s own market before moving on to the final stages of industrialization.
Hand in hand also the professional lighting sector is focusing more and more towards functional innovation and product innovation. This category includes all the projectors used in the entertainment and architecture sectors; our experience includes several projects in this sector where we have followed both the design study on new products and the subsequent phases of engineering and prototyping.
This sector also includes all the products for urban lighting in which the use of rapid prototyping technologies is reduced compared to the domestic sector given the final production technologies, generally cast iron and casting materials.
Clients: Fortana Arte, Artemide, IGuzzini, Flos, DiamanteLighting, Mareco, Targetti, Luceplan, Fabbian, Disano, Fonderie Viterbesi, SpotLight