Austrian manufacturer, Rolf Spectacles, have developed a plant-based 3D printed eyewear collection using castor bean. Rolf’s latest collection, entitled substance, comes in six different colours and 23 different frame designs.
Rolf is a family company based in Austria’s Tyrolean Alps. In 2007, Roland Wolf and Marija Iljazovic began experimenting in their basement, using a milking machine, moped brakes, old cylinders and a coffee table to construct eyewear with wooden hinges and frames. Two years later, the pair founded Rolf, and added their siblings Christian Wolf and Martin Iljazovic to the team. By 2019, Rolf had employed 39 people and dispatched its glasses to over fifty countries worldwide.
Photo Credit: Rolf
While the company is most known for its wooden glasses, it also produces eyewear using plant based materials, as well as titanium, stone, and horn. Rolf’s eyewear is made without screws, meaning that it doesn’t require any maintenance. All glasses can be printed in one batch, as the hinge and frame are printed in a single piece. This reduces the number of external suppliers and spare needed. Simultaneous hinge printing is made possible by Rolf’s Flexlock hinge, for which they won the Silmo d’Or award for innovation and new product ideas in 2017.
Sustainable
Rolf’s substance eyewear is plant-based and eco-friendly, made from renewable resources. The collection is printed from powdered castor beans and water. The material produced is flexible, natural, and skin-friendly. Castor bean is a perennial shrub or tree that is easily and quickly replenished. It has no direct competition with food or nutritional value. The plant grows in arid environments where there is minimal forest growth, so deforestation does not play a part in its production. Moreover, castor bean is fairly drought resistant and can be grown on marginal land, making it a reliable and easily profitable material.
Unbreakable
Rolf eyewear is also virtually unbreakable. The hypothesis was tested by Galileo. The glasses withstood several tests of increasing difficulty: being hit by a football; sat on; knotted; dropped from a height of 114 metres; and even being run over by a car. The substance collection outperformed its titanium and plastic competitors with ease. You can watch a video of the experiment HERE.
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