Audiowings are luxury wireless headphones that sync with online music services, such as Spotify. Besides featuring a built-in storage system, the device also connects wirelessly to the Internet using 3/4G or WiFi.
“When we were first approached with the concept of Audiowings and briefed on its prototyping requirements, we instantly knew 3D printing would be the answer,” explained Ben Mazur, Director of Ignitec. “Our Objet30 Pro 3D Printer was the obvious choice since it has the ability to produce products on demand that depict the accuracy and surface quality of injection molding.”
The first fully 3D printed Audiowings prototype was entered into Sir Richard Branson’s “Pitch to Rich” 2014 competition. Audiowings has since been awarded the “People’s Award,” receiving a prestigious mentoring program from some of the world’s leading business minds. Audiowings is currently finalizing its plans to enter the retail market.
“Since introducing Stratasys 3D printing into our work flow, we have cut our finishing time by more than 50% due to the reduction of support material removal required,” Mazur said. “We have also seen a surge in client interest due to the fact that we can now produce prototype parts with a short turnaround time, while retaining the highest quality and remaining cost effective. Being able to offer functional prototypes prior to manufacturing is something which is very valuable to our clients and takes away a lot of risk and guess work.”
Ignitec’s adoption of Stratasys’ PolyJet 3D printing technology aimed to increase the precision of its prototype parts, as well as reduce its prototyping costs and development cycle times. Equipped with an Objet30 Pro 3D Printer from UK reseller Stanford Marsh Group, Ignitec has since seen a significant reduction in the time required to 3D print and hand-finish its prototyped parts.
“Quality is paramount and is the driving force behind all of our projects,” added Mazur. “We 3D printed the headphones in a durable rigid opaque grey material (VeroGrey), not only enabling us to perfect the look and feel, but also perform ergonomic testing with the user’s comfort level – always integral to this development.”
Higher quality and lower costs – sounds perfect!
Source: Stratasys