3D Printed Tennis Racket Serves a Collaborative Win

In a collaboration between the industrial design and branding studio All Design Lab and contract manufacturer Protolabs, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) was utilized to 3D print the complex geometry behind the frame for the tennis racket named Hìtëkw. 

Through equal parts communication from customer and manufacturer, Hìtëkw was designed and brought to life to challenge conventional design methods and utilize additive to achieve a functional and aesthetic end product.

I spoke with Anthony Lopez, co-founder of All Design Lab, and Chloe Vollaro, the applications engineer on the project for Protolabs, to learn more about how this complex design was built via reciprocal collaboration.

Conceptualizing the Design

Never before having created a concept for sporting equipment, All Design Lab drew inspiration for the racket that would become Hìtëkw from the 2022 U.S. Open in New York. The tournament happened to be taking place about 15 minutes away from All Design Lab’s studio location.

The design was intended to encompass historical storytelling, along with complex geometry the storytelling suggested. All Design Lab’s goal was to push the boundaries of traditionally produced tennis racket frames and create something new.

All Design Lab co-founders Anthony Lopez and Andrew Lim found their inspiration in the Lenape Native American tribe, whose members resided in the Northeastern United States during the 16th and 17th centuries, the site of the 2022 U.S. Open.

To honor the tribe’s homeland, the racket was designed to resemble what the Lenape created from trees and other resources native to their land.

Lopez experimented with AI generative design, and after various iterations, he landed on an intertwining, branch-like racket frame.

As the design progressed and became more complex, Lopez knew processes like CNC machining and injection molding didn’t have the capability to actualize the form.

But additive manufacturing did.

Collaborative, Additive Approach

After finalizing the design, All Design Lab wanted to make it a reality quickly and efficiently. Protolabs would 3D print the frame, named Hìtëkw, or the Lenape term for “tree.” 

“We wanted to find a manufacturer that would work well with us and communicate every step of the way. Trusting in your manufacturer’s capabilities is critical. Knowing the racket frame was complex and required a large, continuous print, we needed someone we could really trust with this print job,” Lopez says.

The tennis racket All Design Lab designed was both durable and light. DMLS was selected as the 3D printing method because of Hìtëkw’s design complexity in the interwoven branches of the frame. The racket’s material is aluminum.

Protolabs Applications Engineer Chloe Vollaro served as one of the engineers on this project and worked closely with All Design Lab during the 3D printing process.

“We took a consultative approach toward 3D printing the tennis racket’s frame,” Vollaro says.

The first step in the collaborative process began with the photo renderings of the initial design and from here, the CAD files were generated. The original CAD files, however, did require some minor tweaks. “We try to be as proactive as possible when it comes to de-risking a build,” Vollaro says. 

CAD can sometimes display a form that cannot physically exist. For example, the initial CAD file of the Hìtëkw frame had somehow managed to turn itself inside out. 

“We reached out to [All Design Lab] to brainstorm how to best fix the issue causing this effect.” The solution involved hollowing out some of the part (not all — see below), which is “something you just can’t do with traditional manufacturing,” Vollaro says.

The next issue Protolabs addressed concerned holing, as the original design did not leave escape routes for powder.

Through a mutual back-and-forth between Protolabs and All Design Lab, the concern was quickly resolved. It was decided that solidifying the inner branches of the design (where free powder could build up) was the best course of action.

Getting the CAD file correct, crucial for any AM job, was particularly important here. The Hìtëkw frame is on the larger end for a build with Protolabs’ DMLS machines, with a height of more than 26 inches. The company has two metal DMLS machines able to accommodate this size of part — GE Additive X Line machines. Protolabs uses its two X Line machines for aluminum and Inconel. Aluminum was selected for Hìtëkw for lightweighting.

3D Printing Process

The Hìtëkw frame was successfully built in one single, continuous print.

While the larger DMLS machines can accommodate multiple parts (sometimes from different customers) on one build plate, the Hìtëkw frame was built by itself due to sheer size, and also for NDA purposes as footage of the print was captured during its build.

The build itself was relatively flat, utilizing a slight angle along with supports that would later be manually cut off. In part, because there was so little Z height, the entire build took roughly 30 hours.

Post-print, the frame went to stress relief.

Then, the part underwent wire EDM and was removed from the platform. From there, the support removal began. Protolabs’ metal finishers were careful to smooth and polish the build without damaging or compromising the final geometry.

“It’s big stakes. A small tool mark or accidentally cutting into the part’s geometry could have ended up costing thousands of dollars to reprint,” Vollaro says.

After the frame completed the postprocessing steps, the final product ended up weighing in at just shy of three pounds.

Game, Set, Match: Hìtëkw’s Future

Utilizing additive enabled All Design Lab to bring Hìtëkw’s concept into reality, achieving intricate functional geometry expressing artistic and historic elements. The collaboration between customer and manufacturer aided success.

3D printing the Hìtëkw frame successfully in one attempt was an important outcome, saving valuable time and preventing unforeseen costs.

“This project showed me how 3D printing offers endless possibilities to design very attractive, or strange and complex shapes that command attention,” Lopez says.

The functional prototype can be strung up and used like a traditional tennis racket, but its primary purpose is to display on tour at events within the international tennis community in both Europe and the U.S.

The racket will be featured at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, France, for the 2024 Summer Olympics until August 11, 2024. The exhibition celebrates design’s role in shaping the future of sports.

Hìtëkw serves as an example of the design possibilities within additive manufacturing, and the promise of future collaborations to come.