Case Study

Cost reductions, feature-rich devices, more project time for technology staff—Perkinelmer points to HP managed Print services (mPs) as the solution that transformed an inefficient, resource-intensive print environment into a streamlined system that paves the way for future electronic workflow initiatives.

“HP mPs has completely changed the landscape. We’ve drastically reduced the number of devices, gained multifunction efficiencies and freed staff time,” says andrew Lancaster, manager of It support and client technology at Perkinelmer. “What’s more, the solution brings visibility to usage patterns and costs that never were visible before.”

COMBATING DEVICE PROLIFERATION, HIGH MAINTENANCE OVERHEAD

Perkinelmer, Inc. designs, manufactures and delivers advanced technology solutions that address global health and safety concerns, including maternal and fetal health, clean water and air, and safe food and toys. the company reported revenue of approximately $1.8 billion in 2009, and employs some 8,800 workers serving customers in more than 150 countries.

A few years ago, as the person newly in charge of the print environment, Lancaster noted a high device-to-employee ratio in some u.s. Perkinelmer offices and a proliferation of models from various vendors. His staff was spending an inordinate amount of time babysitting printers.

Background

The art of digital printing… It’s an area in which Adlis SAS has always been a master. Adlis has excelled in the demanding world of commercial printing in one of the world’s centers of fine art. Adlis has been printing in Paris, the city of lights, for more than a decade. And it has always excelled in the art of turning digital print into profit—with direct mail and digital book printing.

“Adlis was founded about 10 years ago,” explains Philippe Hourdain, Adlis President and Founder. “I took over a small offset printing company and soon after moved to digital printing. I immediately had the idea to use offset and digital as a duo. So we designed this offset–digital combination for advertisers, and the business started to kick in right away.”

The Challenge

And while Adlis produced outstanding work for creative services organizations and advertising agencies, more opportunity was out there that was just out of reach.

It was opportunity in the form of snapshots and moments in time. Family holidays. Blue skies at the beach. Blue eyes looking back at the camera. Virtually every moment, large and small, captured in billions of photographs that consumers take every year. New applications and new revenues were presenting themselves in the form of memories and the demand to turn those snapshots into photo books.

But the necessary image quality was lacking to produce photo quality images and to fully grasp the opportunity at hand. A higher level of quality was needed to allow Adlis to expand and continue its art of excelling in the world of digital printing.

Combine creative people and unlimited technology, and anything can happen. That’s what we advocate and live at 3D Systems. Since we’ve got both creativity and technology in house, when projects come along, we like to see for ourselves just how far we can go. So when a request came for some 3D Systems cufflinks, we went to work.

Our training specialist, Lu McCarty took on the project, utilizing 3D Systems software and hardware, along with some friends in the jewelry business, to see this project from concept to manufacturing. What makes this story so nice is that it parallels the manufacturing process that a jeweler might use everyday, and it shows the power of 3D design and 3D printing technology to supercharge that process.

The request came on August 3, 2013, when Senior Director of Functional Design Scott Summit sent out an internal request: “Does anyone have any 3D Systems cufflinks? I’m going to a black tie dinner.” 

Lu began work on the project shortly thereafter, creating a design using a combination of Geomagic® Design™ Direct, a comprehensive reverse engineering and direct modeling CAD package, and Geomagic Wrap®, which transforms point cloud data into 3D polygon meshes. When it came time to print, he used the ProJet® 3510 HD Max for prototyping and the ProJet® 3510 CPX for printing wax casting patterns.

Here’s how he got to the final product.