Photocentric, the inventor of LCD 3-D printing, recently welcomed HRH, The Princess Royal to its Peterborough headquarters to meet with staff and find out more about the company’s origins, its innovations in 3-D printing technology and some of its recent initiatives, including its development of 3-D printing batteries and research into sustainable materials.

The Princess Royal was presented with a golden horse to mark the occasion, made with a brand new sustainable resin and 3-D printed on a Photocentric LC Magna printer.

Paul Holt, Photocentric managing director, said: “It was a tremendous honour to welcome The Princess Royal to the company. We were very grateful that she could find time in her very busy schedule to learn first-hand about the work we do, which spans two decades of innovation. From our origins inventing a new way to make stamps, to our more recent success creating a new method of 3-D printing using LCD screens.

“We used this 3-D printing innovation during the pandemic when we manufactured millions of face shields for the NHS and are now applying it to disrupt a wide variety of manufacturing industries.

“We are proud of our home-grown, patented technology which has demonstrated that the UK can now reduce dependence on overseas production and manufacture parts locally, making large quantities competitively, using innovation to reduce cost.”

Speaking about the latest sustainable resin used for the 3-D printed horse, Dr Rob Young, Photocentric’s head of chemistry, said: “Our sustainable resin has been specifically formulated to incorporate as much bio-sourced material as possible while still retaining great mechanical properties.

“One of the main components used within the production process for the resin is Pinene, a compound found commonly in trees (specifically pine) as well as a wide range of plants such as rosemary and sagebrush and is a by-product of paper manufacture.”