McDonald’s rolls out 3D printed lights

Global hamburger chain McDonald’s has begun rolling out 3D printed pendants to its restaurants and says it wants to have them in 100 outlets this year.

The translucent pendants – created earlier this year by Signify’s Philips MyCreation to McDonald’s specification – are semi-spherical and feature an embossed pattern.

It was important to McDonald’s that it retains the design rights, as well as Signify’s ability to print the polycarbonate luminaires relatively locally.
In north America, the lights are printed by the Signify-owned Cooper Lighting Solutions in Pennsylvania, while in Europe the company has a 3D printing works in Maarheeze in the Netherlands.

Marc Pochert, senior director global design integration at McDonald’s, says the key features of the pendant is a customised, hemispherical, translucent pendant which he says should ‘shimmer like velvet’.

‘With the design intent, the drawings, and the idea in mind, we started the conversation with Philips MyCreation. And did two rounds of samples.

‘After we saw the second sample we were so close to the original design intent, we never thought that this could be possible.

‘We had the final round of samples approved in less than three months, which is an unbelievable speed when it comes to the production of a pendant light. This whole process exceeded our expectations by far.’

McDonald’s says that has ambitious targets for sustainability. In 2030 it has set itself the target of reducing its carbon footprint by 60 per cent.

‘After we fixed the design part, we recognised that with 3D printing we would also benefit from using sustainable materials,’ says Pochert.

‘Philips MyCreation was able to deliver sustainably on a global scale by pushing the point of production closer to the point of use. This also helps solve the huge issue of speed.

‘We are hoping to have the Philips MyCreation lighting solution in more than 100 countries across the globe in our McDonald’s stores in 2023. From Argentina to Japan, Alaska to Australia. Also, having no stock gives us a huge benefit: it makes us flexible and it helps reducing costs.’

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