The key points
- Enea, with a number of partners, has created a hi-tech platform to provide digital tools to manufacturing companies
- The goal is to allow companies to respond to market needs by creating customized products
- The platform allows you to develop the design and download the 3D file to be sent to production
Key words: ideation, sharing and construction. And, in addition to a digital platform, 3D printing. The revolution of design and craftsmanship travels online, marries creativity and technology and benefits from three-dimensional printing. The new frontier of manufacturing looks towards new scenarios thanks to Supercraft «an innovative web platform of advanced design and digital craftsmanship», conceived to «share highly technological tools and services and guarantee companies the personalization of each product throughout the process». A real challenge that brings together Enea, with the Cross-Tec Laboratory of the Bologna Research Center, Romagna Tech (coordinator), Mister Smart Innovation, and the universities of Bologna and Reggio Emilia.
The functioning of the platform
“This is a hi-tech revolution in the field of manufacturing, supported by new digital artisans and guaranteed by innovative technologies such as 3D printing – says Sergio Petronilli, Enea researcher and curator of the project with researchers Alessio Ubertini, Alex Coppola and Gianluca D ‘Agosta -. Compared to traditional production processes, the use of digital and additive manufacturing technologies allows us to give a concrete response to the growing demand for product customization on the part of the market ». As for how it works, it is the researcher himself who explains it: «Once you have chosen the configuration among the thousands made available by the platform, by downloading you can obtain the 3D file to be sent to the Rapid Manufacturing System for the production of the chair». That’s not all, since through the platform the companies of the same supply chain «will be able to further develop the design of the object, with the possibility of producing a few pieces in a limited series or one-off bespoke objects quickly and at low cost. Furthermore, the new digital artisans will be able to explore the potential of distributed and collaborative production strategies that these technologies enable ».
Three-dimensional models even without Cad skills
To make the whole work, then, the Igm technology (interactive generative modeling) necessary for the development of the 3D web platform “which guarantees the personalization of the product, with a view to continuous mass customization“.” In this way – concludes Petronilli -, each actor in the production chain, despite not having Cad modeling skills, can fine-tune his own 3D model, configuring it interactively among the thousands of possible combinations made available by the platform and send it to a rapid manufacturing system where integrated 3D printing technologies can produce it in the most varied materials ». New course between creativity and technology, sharing and digital revolution.