Disruptive 3D printing technology for metalworking SMEs

Objective

Progemec is an Italian engineering services SME that provides consultancy to metalworking and mechanical engineering companies. Progemec identified the void in the supply of 3D metal printers for metalworking SMEs: there are no cheaper alternatives to high-end €500K+ selective laser sintering machines. To address this void, Progemec created a prototype that reuses a standard metal inert gas welder (available at almost any metal shop) and converts it into a fully-fledged 3D metal printer.

Progemec’s 3D metal printer is designed to be affordable (priced in the range €15-20K which is comparable to other metalworking equipment and services at €1,5-2K year) and long lasting, with substantial improvements in electronics and slicing & printing controlling over the prior projects developed in research projects.

Progemec is targeting a portion of a 400,000 market of EU metalworking SMEs who are usually highly specialized, and work with small batch productions (few to several hundred pieces). The 3D metal printer will allow them to work with higher degree of customization which was not economically feasible with traditional manufacturing methods, and remain competitive on the global scale.

In this 6-month Phase 1 project, Progemec will further assess market potential and research how to create sales and distribution channels to complement its existing direct network in metalworking industry for successful commercialization of 3D metal printer, opening the road for growth as a product organization.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringsubtractive manufacturing
• social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
• natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
• engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
• natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.2.1.2. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies Main Programme
• H2020-EU.2.1.5. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing
• H2020-EU.2.1.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced materials
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument

Topic(s)

• SMEInst-02-2016-2017 - Accelerating the uptake of nanotechnologies advanced materials or advanced manufacturing and processing technologies by SMEs

Funding Scheme

Coordinator