Craft Focus - June/July 2020 (Issue 79)

58 Who started Photocentric and why? Founder Paul Holt started the business back in 2002 to make an innovative product that involved photopolymer. Today, we’re world leaders in manufacturing clear craft stamps and disruptive LCD printer technology and photopolymer resin. What do you specialise in? Since we started in 2002 manufacturing photopolymer resin, we have grown and become patent holders in visible light curing technologies. We’ve then applied our innovations to a range of applications which drive our business: Office Stamps This is where it all began with our patented unique concept called imagepac – pre-packaged photopolymer which simplifies stamp making. Crystal clear polymer craft stamps We are the world’s largest and most trusted manufacturer of craft stamps, all made using our patented image photopolymer package. Since 2013 we have also made clear stamps in Phoenix, AZ to supply the USA with a ‘Made in USA’ product. 3D Printing More recently, we moved into the manufacture of 3D printers. We applied our understanding of photopolymerization in the visible light part of the spectrum to unlock the power of using widely available, high resolution LCD screens in 3D printers – today we’re known for being world leaders in LCD 3D printing. Our 3D vision is to enable custom mass manufacture, through providing disruptive, fast large format machines and functional materials. These have been developed for a range of applications, one strong one is dentistry, particularly aligner manufacture. Other sectors we provide solutions for include the entertainment, industrial and figurine industries. Who contacted you to help out in the current Covid-19 outbreak? Firstly, the Italian ventilator valve story was the trigger for us to think about how we could help with making parts to support hospitals in the current COVID-19 outbreak. Since the outbreak, we’ve effectively changed our business. Our large format printers can make vast numbers of parts per day and we have mobilised both our Magna printers and our prototype large Maximus printers to produce various parts from masks, ventilator valves and more recently, protective face shields. Another printer manufacturer – Prusa – released a design for a face shield made on filament printers. We wanted to maximise our printing however, so one of our engineers designed our own model. With demand from hospitals both local and further afield across Europe for face shields, our focus has now shifted to help with the PPE shortage Stamp of Appr oval With demand from hospitals both local and further afield across Europe for face shields, Photocentric’s focus has now shifted to help with the PPE shortage and protect our health workers. Lisa Miles, craft sales manager at Photocentric tells us more about this journey.