Philips, in partnership with Czech 3D printing company Prusa Research, has launched a new initiative called ‘Fixables’ that’ll give handy customers the ability to print their own replacement accessories, rather than buying them outright. The idea is to massively extend the lifespan of your personal care products – something it’ll manage with the help of 3D model database, Printables.
The Philips’ Fixables miracle
The initiative looks like LePub’s brainchild, using Prusa Research as a main partner to test out its viability. Because of this, Fixables will launch in the Czech Republic first. If customers can print out the models on their locally available printers, it’s unclear what Prusa’s role is. A possible explanation is Philips and LePub leveraging Prusa’s 3D printing community for early consumer data.
It’s still early days for the project, though. Users of the Fixables app will find only one model: a 1mm – 3mm comb attachment for the Philips OneBlade trimmer. There are also 7mm – 24mm, and 3mm – 15 mm attachments coming.
The Czech company is currently “working on” uploading more models, with three unoccupied icons for the next possible additions, which look like functional pieces within the clipper rather than attachments. The Fixables site also gives users the option to personally suggest new additions.
In a world where corporations have grown increasingly hostile to customers, European regulation remains a beacon of consumer protection. It’s worth keeping this in mind when some complain that European corporations aren’t as aggressive in their relentless growth as their American counterparts. “Move fast and break things,” as Zuckerberg and Facebook warned us, and they’ve certainly lived up to both parts of that statement.
