October 08, 2020

Gillette Stays Ahead of the Competition by Using 3D Printing to Unlock Consumer Personalization

As part of its response to increasing pressure from direct-to-consumer shave brands, razor manufacturer Gillette turned to Formlabs Factory Solutions for help launching Razor Maker™ —a platform for designing and manufacturing customized and limited-edition razor handles.

With 3D printing, complexity and variety are “free”; a 3D printer takes no more time, energy, or material to manufacture a complex shape than a simple one, and zero tooling means printing a variety of designs requires no extra production costs. 3D printed products are inherently lower risk because designs can be added, removed, or revised seamlessly with no incremental cost.

“Combining our best shaving technology with the power and flexibility of 3D printing opens up a whole new world of product design possibilities,” said Rob Johnson, design engineer and Razor Maker™ co-founder.

The design freedom unlocked by 3D printing allowed Razor Maker™ designers to draw inspiration from complex geometries found in nature, architecture, and technology.

Designers drew inspiration from geometries found in nature, architecture, and technology to create a wide variety of intricate shapes that would be difficult or impossible to realize through traditional manufacturing. Designers didn’t need to predict which razor handles would resonate the most with their customers because they were confident that 3D printing would help them adapt quickly to customer preferences and buying patterns.

“It allows us to think about form in a way that was never possible before,” said Rory McGarry, industrial design lead at Razor Maker™. “In a traditional sense, we could only do one or two razor designs a year, whereas now we can have an idea, create it in 3D, print it, look at it, adjust it, and say that’s it.”

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