Case study

Creating the largest quantity of a single PPE item by 3D printing ever made

To fulfil our NHS contract, we designed and installed a purpose-built factory to make face shields. Housing 45 Magna printers, operating 24/7, we manufactured over 50,000 3D printed components every day.

Factors that enabled this to happen – Unique position, patented technology

Patented Daylight system – partnering chemistry and screen perfectly. Safe for screens, consistent intensity delivers exceptional final plastic properties.

In-house chemistry – Photocentric has been at the leading edge of photopolymer manufacture for more than 15 years. We manufacture in-house, creating the building blocks of plastics making oligomers. We created a new resin specially for face shields in just 3 weeks using our dedicated team of chemists.

LCD Screens – Large format, high resolution, cost-effective, and long-lasting LCD screens. Our screens run on daylight ensuring our printers last a lifetime. Large screen areas harden large volumes of plastic, simultaneously.

UK sourced components, UK grown product – 70% of the components of Magna are sourced in the UK. Obtaining components locally means we can iterate the design effortlessly, introducing improvements seamlessly. Scaling manufacture can be achieved rapidly. High quality reliable products with secure supply chains.

The changes and developments to enable the manufacture
of 7.7 million face shields

45 printers manufactured and installed as a ‘print farm’

Optimised a design print without supports

Written software to control a farm of printers

Created optimised wash and cure process

Improved speed of printers

Developed the chemistry to improve material property

Liquid Crystal Magna

The Liquid Crystal Magna delivers fast, highly accurate prints suitable for a huge variety of industries and applications. The versatility of the Liquid Crystal Magna supercharges product design enabling you to move from prototyping to production in hours.

Large build volume 4k screen Print speed
510 x 280 x 350mm 3840 x 2160 px 16mm per hour

Equipment List:

Liquid Crystal Magna, Photocentric Air Wash L, Photocentric Cure L2, Daylight Magna Dental Model

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