Custom 3D Printed Glasses Frames: Eyewear Designed For You
Millions of people around the world have bad eyesight and wear glasses, so it’s no wonder that designers take the opportunity to use 3D printing in order to create beautiful, stylish, convenient, and most importantly – custom-made – glasses frames. We visited Adrian Gögl’s Oak & Dust project and saw how the young Swiss is using our online 3D printing service in order to create a stunning collection of custom-made 3D printed glasses.
The Designer Behind the 3D Printed Glasses
Adrian Gögl is an industrial designer from Switzerland. He started designing a few years ago and dedicated his Bachelor’s degree in industrial design to bespoke eyewear. The basic idea behind his concept was to study how evolving 3D printing methods have influenced how products can be designed, manufactured and sold.
Adrian Gögl
Why Custom Made Glasses Frames Matter
In addition to being a designer, Adrian has been working as an optician for many years, which inspired him to create the Oak & Dust project. Through his work as an optician, Adrian has learned that people wearing glasses (and therefore also their opticians) face various problems. Many glasses have poor weight distribution on the nose, resulting in pressure marks, pain and glasses sliding down the nose. Further, half of the cases that are delivered with the eyewear do not fit the frames that they are meant for. Adrian concentrated on solving these problems using the unique features offered by 3D printing.
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
3D Printing Glasses Frames in Polyamide
For the Oak & Dust project, Adrian created custom frames 3D printed in Polyamide. To give the printed frames more “soul”, Adrian also decided to incorporate cork into his process, which has ideal properties to address some of the problems glasses wearers face. A customer’s nose is first scanned and a negative model of the nose is milled out of a small piece of cork. The glasses are then created to fit perfectly to the customer’s face, as the cork ensures that the glasses don’t slide down the nose or leave painful pressure marks. A customer can select to have these new custom glasses made during their consultation visit.
Once models for the frames are created, Adrian can then manufacture a complementary bespoke case for each frame, which is also milled out of pressed cork. The insulating and flexible properties of the cork are ideal to protect the glasses from scratches, hits and extreme temperatures.
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
Creating a 3D Model for 3D Printed Glasses
“I made my CAD models in Rhino/Grasshopper. In this parametric environment, a random shape (closed spline) can be formed into a three-dimensional model of an eyewear model. The parameters (i.e. measurements, connecting elements, inclination, and pupillary distance) can be changed randomly.” – Adrian Gögl
From the outset, Adrian’s goal was to design these frames to be produced with the help of 3D printing. This concept enables opticians to use 3D printers directly in their shops to better create critical products according to customers’ needs. Adrian believes that this type of practical and useful concept will push 3D printing to a higher level.
Oak and Dust
Oak and Dust
Producing a new product is easy nowadays. Do you have a project you’d like to 3D print as well? Simply upload it to our website, choose from more than 100 materials, finishes & colors and receive a high quality print right to your doorstep.
