Only one part available right now. The idea is great, though.
Nice.
Those parts would be anyway hard to sell.
For the company would be a struggle to have a distribution for spare parts and they would cost more than the product anyway. So they can reach the customer through 3d printing and make their product live longer with a minimal effort. More brand should act like this.
Making their product live longer is not usually the top priority for manufacturers. I like the initiative, of course, but I’m sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sounds too good not to be a greenwashing gimmick.
They make money on blade replacement cartridges. If the base unit lasts longer they still make more money in the long run from consumables. A lot like electric toothbrushes.
Source: I have this shaver and buy replacement blades a few times a year.
Yep they basically give the handle away for free anyway just to get you on the blades. Giving away accessories at no-cost-to-them is totally on brand. I doubt many other companies will do it, as accessories are usually moneymakers.
@_haha_oh_wow_ @PotatoLibre I wonder if this isn’t the way to cut costs on #RightToRepair in #EU - you just put out STLs and it’s up to customer to fix his problem
Still good! Printers are quite common these days: you either have one or maybe know someone who has one.
That was my first thought, but it seems easier to run a few thousand more off the assembly line and make the original part than I’d think to have at least one person develop an adequate 3D part for an items that wasn’t originally designed to be 3D printed.
Even for a relatively simple item like the trimmer guard shown, as someone who used those on their whole head for many years, they need to have decent rigidity coming from a number of angles so it cuts evenly, so someone needs to design a decent print, find what types of stock provide the right durability, flex, etc.
So it’s doesn’t sound that free for them or quick, but it’s much cheaper than distribution for a bunch of random parts that may never get used.
I’m curious to see long term effects if this catches on. Will more original parts be made with 3D printing if they need to design prints anyway?
The big downside is even if this were available, I don’t have a printer. I don’t know anyone with one. I don’t know where I could go to (?) rent time on one. So to me at the moment, this is as useful to me as no available replacement part! 😅
A decent printer like from Anycubic or Creality is about 200€.
But there are also online services that can print for you.
In German cities we have Repair Cafes and Makerspaces (Hackerspaces, Fablabs). Many of them are known to happily help out with 3D-printing. Maybe something similar exists in you area?
A Bambulab A1 Mini costs 200 bucks and churns out incredible prints with zero hassle. There’s literally next to no barrier to entry anymore.
I want to see more companies doing this.
you don’t need permission from the company to model your own replacement parts. It’s nice if they provide the models but it’s not necessary.
Direct link: https://www.printables.com/@Philips
Thats really cool, hope this becomes more of a trend
I don’t. Fdm printing has very small cracks at the layer lines. It wouldn’t be quite as bad as say, something with food, or for a close shave rather than a trim, but bacteria will grow in it.
Fdm cannot be reasonably sterilized. Resin printers are better, but not perfect. Even if it doesn’t cause infections, it’s going to pick up an odor.
