24 June 2021 – Repairing worn industrial moulds instead of decommissioning them? It sounds like an obvious approach in industrial economics, but instead it is a technological challenge made possible by the development of 3D printing that would provide manufacturing companies with potential savings of great impact. Committed to making it a reality through the European network “Vanguard Initiative” are Trentino Sviluppo with ProM Facility and HIT – Hub Innovazione Trentino, as of today assignees of a TAF – Technical Assistance Facility – call for proposals. TAF is a service of the European Commission within the framework of the Smart Specialisation Strategy – a tool used throughout the EU to improve the effectiveness of public policies for research and innovation – that deals with providing strategic advice for the development of particularly worthy innovation and technology transfer projects. The prestigious award that comes from Brussels will provide 30 days of specialised support for business plan development and consultancy for the exploitation and market access of innovative technology developed in ProM Facility.
The Councillor for Economic Development, Research and Labour of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Achille Spinelli, expressed his satisfaction in congratulating the researchers involved in the project for the excellent result achieved, explaining that: “The awarding of the TAF call to ProM Facility and HIT is an important signal because it offers our territorial system the opportunity to develop its skills in synergy with a very important international network. Also excellent are the prospects for our companies, which will soon be able to experience a highly innovative industrial process up close, saving money on changing moulds and focusing instead on investments so as to become more competitive in Italy and abroad”.
Post-pandemic restart? It’s circular for Trentino’s mechatronics. ProM Facility, Trentino Sviluppo’s 4.0 laboratory in Rovereto, has in fact won, in partnership with HIT – Hub Innovazione Trentino and thanks also to the support of the province’s Office for Relations with the EU in Brussels, a major call for high value-added consultancy promoted by the European Union as part of the Vanguard Initiative. As its name suggests, the Vanguard Initiative is a vanguard platform launched in 2013 by EU territories to network between companies, clusters, research organisations and institutions engaged in industrial transition and the development of innovative solutions aimed at strengthening the regional dimension of European industrial policy. To date, more than 30 regions of the continent are members. For Italy, along with Trentino and Alto Adige, we find Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia – Giulia, Lombardy and Piedmont.
Through ProM Facility and HIT, the Trentino system works, within the Vanguard Initiative and the Intelligent Specialisation thematic area on the modernisation of industry, on a pilot project of research and development towards the market promoted by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento and conducted in ProM.
This project concerns the technique of 3D Printing, specifically about repairing high-value industrial objects through hybrid manufacturing. A complex nomenclature for an initiative that is actually very real but, until a few years ago, impossible: implementing 3D printing knowledge to help companies restore and reuse worn industrial moulds that are often very expensive, without having to decommission them and buy new ones.
A demo case, then, that reduces environmental pollution, helps companies save money and has achieved today yet another important milestone: the awarding to Trentino Sviluppo and HIT of a TAF – Technical Assistance Facility – tender. A milestone that makes 30 days of specialised consulting available to ProM Facility technologists and researchers – to be used by October 2021 – with a very significant equivalent economic value in terms of the high value-added services and potential development support they will determine.
The consultations will range from business plan development to legal protection, with a view to exploiting the innovative technology for the recovery of worn-out moulds developed by ProM but, most importantly, they will enable the opening of a new market in this regard.