Kimball & Bean Plates

Published on April 30, 2022 by Todd Rylaarsdam

3d modeling manufacturing

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This was a project from Kimball & Bean (makers of fancy custom planters and other garden ornaments) to manufacture branded nameplates to be used on a small run of planters destined for the first lady’s office in the White House.

The plates were supposed to be ~5in x 1in, so the details present in their logo would be tricky to recreate. Over a few hours I recreated a 2D drawing of their logo as a 3D model in Autodesk Inventor, and got the design approved by the client.

To actually manufacture the plates, it was decided that SLS 3D Printing would be the best technology to use. In the WCL lab our standard 3D printers couldn’t do the detail, and neither could our small CNC machine, so we utilized 3DPX in downtown Chicago to create the plates.

Overall it was a great experience to work on a quick, fast turnaround project and work with manufacturers to get a product made correctly and efficiently.