I noticed a Shapeways ad on Facebook recently (Shapeways is a 3D printing company), and I noticed that they now offer 17-4 PH stainless as an option, as well as hardening services for the same. 17-4 is a strongly magnetically reactive stainless steel that can be hardened. So, yes, if magnets are substituted for screws, the razor can be assembled like a Lego kit. This absolutely sounds the death knell for fully machined razors once the teething issues have been overcome. I hear 3D printed 17-4 is more of a pain to machine than regular 17-4, so that could be a major roadblock to wide adoption in the razor industry. @twhite thoughts? Edit: link https://www.shapeways.com/materials/stainless-steel-17-4ph
.I have been working for a 3D printing company for the past 18 years. We have been printing all types of material including stainless. The costs have been prohibitive for mass production in the past. That has been changing the last few years. I see a point in the near future where 3D will be cheaper than manual machining in the very near future. There are several driving factors in my view. 3D requires nobody to babysit the machine once setup. The technology is rapidly improving. Better build quality and machines able to run much faster. There is always going to be some post machining on grown steel parts. They are a bit more difficult to post machine than billet. It could be the scale build up super hard surface .
I just received a 3D printer, my first one. I don't plan to print a razor, but I will follow this with interest.
You can get a 3D printer that can print using a metallic powder. Probably expensive, but since I have no interest in printing with metal, so I haven't looked into it other than a short article I ran across while looking into 3D printers.
Interesting to print in stainless steel. But, you would still need to finish it off, by hand. Wouldn't a cnc machine crank them out much faster.
Might not even be faster, depending on the complexity of the razor design. But yes, setup costs are a huge part of modern razor cost. A run of 500 razors might be $100 each, plus a $2,000-5,000 setup fee for each run. A run of 5,000 razors might drop the cost down to $50 per razor, but you're still eating the setup fee. With 3D printing, you could order 1,000 razors in a month or 50. The price per razor won't change, and the more you print, the better the product becomes. The more data they get, the tighter the controls and tolerances. There's a constant feedback loop. So, for huge runs, absolutely, CNC machining is the way to go. For small runs, like most razor makers do, 3D printing is certainly going to be attractive. Blackland was the first to do a 3D printed stainless razor, the Era. The Era has some features on it that would be difficult to machine, but are easy to make through printing. Shane has stated that he already has other 3D printed razor designs planned and in the pipeline.
The day will come when your grand child wants a new action figure, and you'll buy a one time printing license to print it for them.
There is an old story on the internet. A small group of guys wanted to make 100% copies of the fatboy. They took a mint example to an aerospace company in texas and were told "at least 1,000$ a razor" because the company thought the razor was too complicated to do.
I do not think that 3D printed stainless steel razors will eliminate machined razors and reason for this is when Blackland came out with their 3D stainless steel razors, machined and polished SS CNC where still cheaper and just as good for end results. If they could get the finish better and just keep costs closer to CNC QC they might make a go of it. One thing I will say 3D printing can make certain designs of a razor heads & handles that are almost impossible to get at to machine properly but that is not really necessary because machined shaving razors get similar end results for a shave. IMO. I bought some off shore Zamak razor heads with excellent coatings of chrome on a live sale Yaqi hosted last year that they use to put on, they let go very cheap under 5 dollars US and mailed to my doorstep. I do not know how 3D & CNC machined razors can even beat that(quality great & longevity ?) IMO, but there will be a big demand for 3D industrial obsolete parts to do repairs on expensive equipment and odd ball new specialty equipment IMO. But if it becomes trendy or the popular thing to have the sky is the limit maybe for sales for a short duration of time.
If a person has a quality 3d laser scanner, a CAD program that can interface with the 3d laser scanner. AND a razor in parts.... they can scan up say a gillette toggle they purchased in parts... and then simply rebuild it with the 3d printer for resale. In THEORY , i havent dealt with 3d printing technology in years... it SHOULD possibly allow you to build the gillette toggle from cad drawings, as a single unit. 3d prototyping in the 1990s would allow you to build entire assemblies, like the vent on your cars dash board, insid ethe printer, and have it fully functioning like the real parts...
My father was an aerospace machinist. That's an "FU" price quote. If someone ordered 100,000 razors, the price would likely fall to under $100 per razor.
