No Old Dinosaur: KAYIWA’s 3D-Printed DINO Clothes Rack

Materialise supported KAYIWA in the creation of a 3D printable design, with a perfect and repeatable quality that meets KAYIWA’s standards. Since the hangers may be numbered, the clothes rack can be used not only at home, but in public cloakrooms as well. Besides the numbering, the software Materialise Magics was also applied to create labels with both an aesthetic and practical function. The innovative clothes hangers were adorned with KAYIWA’s K logo, at the same time covering up the holes that were created to remove powder after laser sintering!

Getting the Hang of Complex Labeling

Materialise’s software platform includes solutions for basic and advanced labeling. Is this a new function? Absolutely not. The labeling function has been present in Materialise Magics for several years and offers, besides automatic labeling, options for manually labeling complex series. 

While KAYIWA determined the font and all aesthetic features of their designs, Materialise applied the numerical labels on the hangers. Each hanger also contained three holes that were used to remove the powder trapped inside after printing. The two visible holes were cut in KAYIWA’s K-shaped logo with the design enhancement software Materialise 3-matic. After the printing and powder removal, K-shaped 3D-printed labels were fitted onto the powder removal holes. As no powder was trapped inside, no material was wasted and the clothes hangers are much lighter.

“During the last decade, 3D Printing technology has advanced considerably, which allowed the true vision for DINO to be realized,” says Lincoln Kayiwa. “In line with KAYIWA’s sustainability values, hangers are produced only to meet the exact demand. The remaining polyamide powder from the laser-sintered parts is reused. Nothing goes to waste.”

Innovative Labeling Meets Innovative Design

For this project, KAYIWA worked closely with the design and engineering team at Materialise. “Design is often the key to success for a 3D Printing project. Together with the customer, we modified the original shapes in order to come to designs that are ready for Additive Manufacturing,” says Karel Honings, Project Manager at Materialise.

The collaboration between Materialise and KAYIWA led to the 3D-printed DINO clothes rack, now available in three versatile models: straight, wavy and modular, and in the eight KAYIWA standard colors (black, blue, green, orange, red, violet, white and yellow). Besides, the DINO rack can be customized to match your room’s current style, and it is even possible to incorporate your company’s brand identity through a logo or specific color scheme. Materialise Magics’ labeling feature offers more than automatic labeling for mass production: it supports the creation of playful yet functional art pieces that rejuvenate innovation in the design world.

All photographs courtesy of KAYIWA.