{"id":599,"date":"2025-09-18T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/?p=599"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:50:31","slug":"us-lighting-brands-not-going-back-to-20th-century-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/18\/us-lighting-brands-not-going-back-to-20th-century-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"US lighting brands “not going back to 20th-century manufacturing”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"3D<\/div>\n

American lighting<\/a> companies are using 3D-printing<\/a> and digital manufacturing to try and fix the “extremely broken” lighting manufacturing industry, Ellen Eberhardt<\/a> reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a bid to create more efficient, localised and ultimately, sustainable mass production, lighting companies such as New York-based Juniper<\/a>, California-based Gantri<\/a> and Brooklyn’s Wooj<\/a> have all integrated 3D-printing technology into their manufacturing lines.<\/p>\n

“We are not going back to the 20th-century manufacturing system where there’s a very high set-up cost and the only way that you could make something work is by manufacturing it overseas to essentially utilise cheap lower labour costs,” Gantri founder Ian Yang<\/a> told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“We want to use technologies to benefit the creative class, to help them think about better, bigger, more interesting, more exciting ideas.”<\/p>\n

\"3D
US lighting company Juniper is moving its manufacturing to a Connecticut factory. Photo courtesy of Juniper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yang’s complaints echo similar sentiments shared by Juniper founder Shant Madjarian<\/a>, who is currently in the process of reorganising the company’s production methods by combining traditional techniques, such as injection moulds, with developing technologies.<\/p>\n

Founded in Brooklyn in 2011, the company produces a range of architectural lighting products using a mass customisation approach \u2013 creating lighting systems as a kit of parts that can be “slightly customised” to fit the needs of offices, residential and commercial spaces.<\/p>\n

“The industry needs to be broken down”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Madjarian’s ultimate goal is to bring the majority of manufacturing in-house, specifically to a Connecticut warehouse the company recently relocated to.<\/p>\n

“The industry needs to be broken down,” Madjarian told Dezeen. “It’s a complete mess. I covered a lot of different industries, and this is atrocious.”<\/p>\n

\"Manufacturing
Juniper combines traditional manufacturing techniques with developing technology. Photo courtesy of Juniper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This stems, in part, from the complexity of the manufacturing system commonly deployed by US lighting companies. In the industry, a design is typically manufactured in several parts overseas, where labour and cost of manufacturing is more affordable.<\/p>\n

According to Madjarian, electronics are typically manufactured in China, while elements like finishing brass with a patina or polish might happen in Canada, and assembly takes place by hand in the USA.<\/p>\n

3D printing an alternative to traditional injection moulding\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The international coordination alone makes the lighting manufacturing process complex, but Madjarian points to other issues as well, such as “old school” and lethargic certification processes, and an underlying competitiveness in the industry for larger production jobs.<\/p>\n

Madjarian believes that manufacturing more elements in-house may offer a solution to some of these issues.<\/p>\n

However, this requires US domestic technology to be faster, more affordable and less labour intensive, which is why he’s embraced developing technology such as 3D-printing.<\/p>\n

\"3D
California-based company Gantri has recently opened a factory lined with over 1,000 3D-printers. Photo courtesy of Gantri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although it’s used in a variety of cases within production, manufacturers emphasise the process provides an alternative to injection moulding \u2013 a manufacturing technique that’s heavily relied upon in the current industry.<\/p>\n

Injection moulds are made of a durable metal, with the shape of a specific part carved out of its body.<\/p>\n

A molten material, such as a plastic, is then poured into the mould and solidifies within seconds into a piece, which is then used in assembly as part of a larger design.<\/p>\n