The Luximprint Design Guidelines are tailored to ensure designs are compatible with our proprietary “Printoptical” process for creating custom optics.
The key elements of Luximprint Design Guidelines include:
File Format and Preparation:
Designs are typically required in CAD formats compatible with our slicing software and 3D printing systems. We may work with .STEP or .IGS files to transition smoothly from design to an optical 3D print. The guidelines emphasize preparing files with precise optical surfaces, as our process produces smooth, functional optics without post-processing.
Material Specifications:
In the optical 3D printing process, we use specific UV-curable resins (e.g. LUX Standard or LUX Crystalline materials) to ensure optical clarity, performance, UV stability, and impact resistance. Our Design Guidelines specify how to design with these material properties in mind, such as maximum thickness, minimal feature sizes, geometric complexity, transparency requirements, or light diffusion options.
Geometric Constraints:
Minimum and maximum feature sizes for optical elements like lenses, facets, or microstructures (e.g., micro-lens arrays) are defined to match their printing resolution. Recommendations for avoiding overly complex or unsupported structures are included, yet the additive process handles (surface) generally complexity better than traditional methods.
Optical Performance:
Our guidelines include ‘tips and tricks’ for optimlly designing illumination optics, our ‘golden design rules’, such as lens curvature, facet placement, or light distribution patterns, especially for our “target-to-source” approaches (designing from the desired light output back to the source). Considerations for minimizing glare or achieving specific beam angles are included.
Substrate and Build Area:
Designs must fit within the Luximprint 3D printer’s build tray. The format of the build tray is fairly large (standard set-up) and can be extended to demand.
Options for printing on substrates (e.g., acrylic sheets) or using opaque masking for light control could be outlined. Typically, the substrate becomes an intrinsic part of the end solution, or the printed structure is removed from the build tray.
Design for Prototyping:
Emphasis on iterative design, encouraging multiple variations in a single print run for “trial-and-error” testing. It is fairly easy to combine multiple (comparable) lens types or structures in the same job. Considering the best approaches, a combination of jobs is always considered (limited to one customer per job!) and a trial and error approach with different variations is encouraged. Also, the Luximprint process faces no minimum order quantity (MOQ) constraints, allowing single-unit prototypes.
Surface Finishes:
Instructions for specifying smooth, frosted, or textured finishes, which the process can achieve directly without polishing. Both smooth and frosted surface finishes can be applied in one single job; Also, potential guidance can be provided on the application of optical performance coatings (e.g., reflective or decorative), and any other post-process efforts such as adding mounting features.
Lead Time and Expedite Options:
Typical lead times are 5-10 business days. However, in specific situations, there might be reasons to adjust the approaches for the faster “Expedite Prototyping” option if needed. Tweaking the design by lowering the complexity can be a requirement to enable a ‘full-speed-forward’ mode.
Access the Full Guidelines
Luximprint’s Design Guidelines are not fully public and are typically provided upon request. The Printoptical Capabilities section at this website however provides the most common design, material and process documentation for review and download.
In case deeper information such as raw transmission data, and refractive index figures, is required, please contact us directly and we would be happy to help!
