3D Printing for fashion Accessories

Rishi Gupta
Managing Director at Gupta Overseas

MakerBot Method X 3D printer at CIPET – LARPM, Bhubaneswar

Established in 1987, Gupta H.C. Overseas (I) Pvt. Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and exporter of ladies’ high-fashion leather footwear in India. Backed by contemporary designs by leading European design studios and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like advanced testing labs, Gupta Overseas can produce 8,000 pairs a day. Over the past 32 years, Gupta Overseas has collected a wide variety of awards, including Best Exporter Award by provincial government, Export Excellence Award by Council for Leather Exports, National Productivity & Innovation Award by Government of India, and International Footwear Design Competition 2019 Certificate of Merit by Confederation of International Footwear Association.

Design Is Never a Piece of Cake

Fashion is all about design, and Gupta Overseas has many permanent Italian, Spanish and Dutch designers and technicians in-house. Needless to say, design validation is essential to Gupta Overseas’ operations. In shoe designs, there can be many rounds of iterations before the customers finally give their approval. This is very time-consuming, especially considering that Gupta Overseas is serving a large number of leading brands across six continents.
 
Gupta Overseas used to rely upon local vendors to make molds for shoe prototypes. The vendors used traditional methods like handcrafting and machining, which could take as long as 10 days. As a result, Gupta Overseas often needed to jockey for a place in the queue to meet the deadlines. To make things worse, whenever there were any design modifications, the existing molds would need to be discarded and the whole process had to be repeated. Not only did this procedure significantly delay the time-to-market, it also led to staggeringly high sampling costs.

Furthermore, because these prototypes were often made with wood, they were not actual replicas of the shoe components — there was always a small deviation in the second product in comparison to the first.

Time to Speed Up

In an effort to streamline the prototyping process, save costs and expand business, Gupta Overseas started to consider new technologies, and their eyes fell upon FDM 3D printing. With its potential to rapidly and efficiently produce prototypes in-house, Stratasys 3D printers seemed to be the perfect answer for Gupta Overseas’ to address the challange.

At first, Gupta Overseas experimented with some desktop 3D printing machines, but they were disappointed by the high failure rate and the inconsistent part quality. Someone always had to watch the printers so that they could restart the jobs in case of failures.
 
Hoping to find something that was both reliable and high-quality, Gupta Overseas reached out to Altem Technologies, a long-time Stratasys partner in India. Offering a complete array of CAD/CAM/CAE/ PLM, 3D scanning, and printing solutions, Altem Technologies was well positioned to provide help. They recommended Gupta Overseas consider more Industrial grade 3D Printer of F123 series, resulting in the purchase of a Stratasys® F170 3D printer based on Fused Deposition modelling ( FDM ) 3D Printing technology

Getting Professional

Gupta Overseas optimizes their FDM 3D printing capabilities by collaborating closely with Altem Technologies. They stay up to date with 3D printing software updates and features through this partnership. Altem also provides timely support and training sessions to Gupta Overseas engineers, enabling them to address technical challenges and operate the 3D printing machine proficiently.

At Gupta Overseas, shoe designers and engineers appreciate the remarkable consistency, reliability, and efficiency of the system. The F170 FDM 3D printing machine which processes wide array of 3D Printing materials is utilized to create various shoe components such as heels, toe designs, and buckles. 3D Printer models produced by this machine highly resemble the final products, thereby shortening the iteration process and reducing the time-to-market. According to Rishi Gupta, Managing Director of Gupta Overseas, “The increasing demand for fancy and trendy footwear with timely and efficient delivery is the key factor driving the global footwear industry. The Stratasys FDM technology makes design validation as easy as 1, 2, 3.”
Generally speaking, they engage in PLA 3D Printing for the first sampling and with ABS filament for the final functional testing because of its high strength.

By bringing the prototyping process in-house with the Stratasys 3D Printers, what used to take 10 days to complete can now be done in one. With simple postprocessing like sanding, painting and coating, engineers can present hyper-realistic prototypes for the designers to review and modify within 24 hours. If a concept needs to be changed, it can be changed quickly. This also means that the designers can simultaneously work on two to three seasons of shoe designs. In addition, the time have been cut by as much as 90% because designers can quickly validate the designs with several prototypes before investing in Mold making. Commenting on the impact of Stratasys’ technology, Rishi Gupta stated, “We have seen the number of project delays drastically reduced.”

Stratasys F170 3D Printer

The F170 3D Printing machine allows designers to rapidly create and test their ideas on the same day. With a variety of 3D Printing materials, including TPU filament in addition to PLA, ABS-M30, ASA, and ABS-CF10.Inclusion of ABS-CF10 materials makes FDM 3D Printer stands out as an exceptional carbon fiber 3D Printer using fused deposition modelling technology, all with an affordable 3D Printer price tag. By including TPU Filament, it also enables elastomer 3D Printing, making it suitable for a wide range of 3D Printing applications involving flexible materials. Users can now reduce lead times and costs, improve product quality, and speed up time-to-market.

Publication Date : March, 2023

About Altem Technologies Pvt. Ltd

Altem Technologies is a well-established 3D digital experience company that has been actively contributing to the industry for nearly 15 years. Initially rooted in PLM software and 3D Printing, Altem has successfully transformed into a prominent provider of comprehensive 3D digital solutions. Altem’s 3D Innovation platform offers an extensive array of products catering to various applications, including design, reverse engineering process, asset digitization, prototype manufacturing, life science, healthcare, culture and heritage, and consultancy services, among others.

With a diverse clientele spanning automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare, research academia, and more, Altem adeptly addresses the unique requirements of each industry through a combination of expertise and innovation. Our team comprises skilled professionals, including Scientists, Application Engineers, Designers, domain experts, and software specialists, all working collectively to deliver exceptional solutions to our valued customers.

Altem Technologies Pvt Ltd, besides being a major provider of 3D Scanning services in India, is also a leading provider of 3D Printing Services in India with 3D Printing technologies like FDM, Polyjet, DLP, Metal, etc. Altem offers a complete solution around 3D Digitization and Innovation, and has emerged as a one-stop-shop for all 3D Printing, 3D Scanning, CAE, PLM, and Life Sciences needs, offering a wide spectrum of products for engineering and life sciences companies in India