Milling is a standard process adopted by a huge number of medium-to-small manufacturing companies, professionals, and makers for the production of both prototypes and end products. Such players, which include carpenters, furniture producers, artisans, architects, stand and scenography builders, as well as DIY enthusiasts and makers, have to face the following issues which highly impact their business:
• The high cost of professional milling machines, in the range of 50,000-300,000€, makes them simply not affordable for such players, also considering the related expenses for operation and maintenance. Even if such tools ensure high precision and allow manufacturing wide surfaces, they are bulky and heavy, have very large footprint, and require dedicated industrial environments.
• The low performances offered by CNC desktop milling machines. Professionals and makers can turn to a few affordable desktop tools available in the market, but such tools have very limited working surfaces, usually as wide as an A4 paper sheet (20 x 30 cm), which prevents them from producing whatever medium or big size product, such as chairs, tables, skateboards or skis.
As a result, SMEs and makers often rely on outsourced manufacturing services, which increases the costs for each piece produced, poses problems in terms of availability and delivery times, and above all prevents manufacturers from having full control over the production phase.
Springa has designed Goliath PRO, the first portable and autonomous robotic tool which removes the stationary boundaries of CNC machines, allowing users to produce human-scale projects wherever they want. Goliath PRO has the dimensions and price of a desktop machine, but endless possibilities and work area comparable to a professional one.
Goliath PRO can be positioned directly on the work surface: this innovative mode of operation makes it the first portable and autonomous robotic machine tool, with a work area wider than any desktop tool. This is a novel concept and an innovative approach, which overturns the paradigm of CNC manufacturing technologies.
The overall objectives of the feasibility study were:
Technical Feasibility:
- Collection of the user requirements
- Tests on the components
Business Feasibility:
- Consolidation of the business model
- Market analysis
- Economic and Financial projections
