Recarlo leverages LFAM in redefining its luxury retail experience

Recarlo partnered with Caracol AM to elevate its retail spaces through innovation and design. Through Heron AM technology, Recarlo was able to bring to life the wall panels it has envisioned, combining impactful design features and sustainability with its iconic aesthetic and brand identity, redefining the luxury retail experience for its stores.

Recarlo is one of Italy’s most iconic fine jewelry maisons. Founded in 1967 by Carlo Re in the heart of Valenza — the historic district of Italian goldsmithing — the company continues to craft jewelry that celebrates timeless beauty. Today, Recarlo carries forward its founding values of authenticity, creativity and Italian craftsmanship, while embracing innovation to shape the future of luxury.

Project development

Last year the company announced its plans for the opening of its first flagship store in Milan, which was inaugurated recently in the heart of the city’s luxury fashion district. This new retail experience was designed to have a key role in expressing Recarlo’s identity, serving as a physical embodiment of the brand’s vision and heritage. That’s why the company carefully curated its retail environment to reflect elegance, coherence, and emotion. In this context, Caracol AM forked for an ambitious brief: to create a sculptural wall panel that would evoke the softness and depth of a velvet curtain, an expressive architectural feature for Recarlo’s boutique in Milan’s Montenapoleone district.

The final wall paneling creates a beautiful trompe l’oeil effect when looked at from afar, while up close one can see the 3D printed layers to appreciate the use of innovative technology. To create this sculptural wall, the piece was divided into three sections for a total size of 6000 x 3900 mm, which were left as-built to emphasize the aesthetic quality of additive layering. The panels were finished with paint in Recarlo’s signature corporate blue, reinforcing the brand’s identity through both form and color.

Technical Details:

• System: Heron 400 Rail + HF extruders
• Nozzle Size: 5mm
• Material: rPETG + 20 GF
• Size: 2000 x 3900 x 400 mm each
• Weight: 160kg each
• Print time: 55 hrs each
• Post-Processing: milling (e.g., opening for display case insertion), painting.

The benefits of advanced robotic manufacturing in high-end retail design

Adopting Caracol’s LFAM technology enabled Recarlo to manufacture highly custom, geometrically complex parts that would have been difficult and expensive to replicate with traditional fabrication techniques. With Heron AM, the sculptural panels were produced as continuous, seamless elements, tailored precisely to the design vision and dimensional constraints of the location. Heron AM unlocked new creative potential by removing the limitations of traditional processes, giving to the designers the freedom to explore more expressive geometries and textures.

Furthermore, the choice of rPETG reinforced with glass fiber, a recycled material, also ensured the production remained aligned with the sustainable principles the company set on this project, ensuring minimal waste and limited need for post-processing operations. This approach made it possible to produce consistent, large-scale installations while preserving creative intent and optimizing lead times and costs. The final outcome demonstrates how robotic 3D printing can empower designers to push the boundaries of form, materiality and expression even in the most refined luxury contexts.

A new vision for retail experiences

This collaboration between Recarlo and Caracol AM is a perfect example of how robotic additive manufacturing is reshaping the future of luxury retail. Several luxury brands are adopting these technologies to combine sustainability, design freedom, and technological innovation to create spaces that are not only visually captivating, but also meaningful expressions of brand identity.

Far beyond its function, the wall panel becomes a canvas for storytelling, an architectural gesture that reflects Recarlo’s values and aspirations. Thanks to the adoption of Heron AM, it was possible to transform a creative vision into a tangible, impactful experience, setting a new standard for how design, craftsmanship, and advanced manufacturing can come together to elevate the retail world.

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