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Reviving the True X-Metal Line with new 3D Printing Technology

Dennis Panlilio

I should Work at Oakley
1,075
1,793
Manila, Philippines
3D Printing has advanced significantly over the past years and has influenced the design process and the ease of manufacturing parts for industrial applications. With this in mind...Oakley can actually revive the manufacturing of X-Metal frames without having to revert to their old manufacturing process of creating the frames. They can actually just do this now in a small room and create even better frames with significantly more complex designs and strength at affordable manufacturing costs. With this technology and the Oakley DNA...I can forsee even crazier and more organic designs. I for one hope they use the new technology to revive the X-Metal line. Check out the videos below. The 3D Printer is from 3D Systems and uses Direct Metal Printing technology. This machine is designed specifically to create parts with titanium alloy.

UPDATED: Added the X-Metal: Purpose Beyond Reason video to show how the X-Metals were manufactured by Oakley.



X-Metal: Purpose Beyond Reason
 
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Very cool technology. I hope Oakley will make good use of this, if they do, and create some awesome pieces!
 
It looks cool, but I have to wonder how much material is wasted. That's not cost effective.
 
Sintering and cnc machining can technically also provide the means to achieve awesome ti frames. Even if Oakley wanted to continue with casting xmetals outside of US that would have been possible. I feel the barriers are bound by business decisions of consolidation more so than technological barriers. It's a fundamental objective of business mergers and acquisitions
 
Hmmm, I don't know. Take the straight stems on a 0.3. Ive seen that type of stem on other sunglasses.
 
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