Featured Preview – Salone del Mobile 2022
A Maximum of Design Freedom

Oechsler, a company based in southern Germany, is a past master in the field of 3D printing with plastic – it produces customized solutions for the industry at its head office in Ansbach and at its various international locations, be it components or entire products. Oechsler’s expertise not only saves resources, it also gives clients maximum of design freedom, because the modern technology it deploys means you can cover numerous technological features using only a few components. The fact that this can also be really exciting from the viewpoint of the furniture industry, too, was demonstrated by a product study compiled by Oechsler together with designer Johannes Steinbauer and presented last year. In order to better understand all the potential that 3D printing has to offer for designing seating, the team created a total of five prototypes with different bases and upholstery. Oechsler’s “Lounge Chair Slope” boasts all the benefits that concept chairs have to offer immediately convinced people and went on to win the Stylepark Selected Award. Furthermore, the concept is a hybrid, meaning that the technology is only used for those components where it makes sense – “for example for elements relating to comfort, such as the chairs’ seats and armrests,” explains Leonhard Klein, Program Manager, Additive Manufacturing Lattice at Oechsler. This made it possible to include zones with differing degrees of hardness in one and the same part, thus affording customers maximum comfort. “You cannot achieve that using conventional manufacturing methods. We can produce these components without screws, adhesives or staples because everything is made of thermoplastic polyurethane. Moreover, the connecting elements and the tools necessary for building the furniture can be printed directly at the same time,” explains Klein. Oechsler is currently collaborating with furniture makers in order to develop a marketable product.

At the upcoming Milan Design Week from June 7-12, 2022 visitors can see for themselves just what benefits direct 3D printing offers them in the form of real-life products and explore the potential for joint development projects. “The concept chairs are not primarily aimed at sales but at demonstrating the kind of opportunities the technology offers. This includes optimizing even existing designs by means of elements that have been 3D-printed,” Klein comments. In order to present this technology, Oechsler has chosen no less a location than the prestigious Milan Design Week. “For us, it is important to be at the epicenter of the Design Week,
in Brera. Add to which, the showroom’s layout at the crossroads of via Solferino and via Castelfidardo is ideally suited to showing the chairs off in a situation where people can try them out and get a good understanding of the many options that the concept offers,” he comments.

Showroom Oechsler:
Street Corner Via Solferino / via Castelfidardo, 20121 Mailand

Opening hours:
June 7-12, 2022
9 a.m. through 7 p.m.