The ability to apply technological innovation and technical training is of strategic importance for SMEs.
Technology & Design, which includes among its members companies, associations, organizations, and professionals, can be of great help with its expertise and professionalism.
The company was born with the stated intent of introducing innovative technologies applied to the design and engineering of new products to businesses in the Veneto region. Over the years, the activity has enriched itself with all the software and hardware evolutions that have gradually appeared on the market, with particular attention to additive manufacturing. Also, the mission to promote the adoption of innovative technologies in the industrial fabric has expanded the scope, and from the Italian Northeast, it has extended to all national production districts and numerous clients in Central and Eastern Europe.
“We can act as the true Technical Office of the client company. – states Andrea Pagnossin, Director of Technology & Design – Our organization is divided into a section that deals with innovative design and another that specializes in practical aspects related to 3D printing. However, these are closely connected units that share all resources.”.
The idea takes shape from
concept to aesthetic/functional prototype, through product design and industrialization.
These are the stages that the Research & Development team follows to shape the clients’ requests: “We use the latest and most innovative modeling software from Dassault Systèmes, Catia for the study of particularly complex free forms and SolidWorks for solid modeling. – Pagnossin continues – Today, there is also SolidWorks Industrial Design, a particularly intuitive and fast way to start a project. We support the client in all phases, identifying together the best aesthetic and technical solutions to achieve product realization. Often, one starts with a physical model, perhaps to modify it to build new products based on the shapes of old collections; in these cases, to obtain the mathematical model, Reverse Engineering is used. We use highly advanced optical 3D scanning systems, the most innovative and versatile; other connected software allows for reconstructing the mathematics with excellent precision. Three-dimensional optical scans can also be used for measurements and checks with mathematical models”.
Moving on to the prototyping phase, we enter additive manufacturing. The company specializes in stereolithography (resin solidification, still the most precise and expensive), powder bed fusion, and filament-based technologies with plastic material extruded from a nozzle. The materials that can be used include epoxy resins, nylon, ABS, but also steel, chrome cobalt, titanium, aluminum. Prototypes with mechanical characteristics similar to those of the final product can be obtained. For production, however, it is often necessary to resort to traditional manufacturing, with computer numerical control (CNC) machines that remove material to build pieces in large series or thermoplastic molds for mass production. In this case as well, Technology & Design offers top-level consulting services.
The importance of the group
Since the beginning of 2016, Tecnologia & Design has become part of SolidWorld GROUP a group of companies with a widespread presence in the territory, capable of offering high-tech software and hardware products and services to the Italian mechanical industry. The companies that compose it boast experiences both in the field of 3D design and construction, and in the marketing of tools, equipment, and services, as confirmed by the group’s chairperson Roberto Rizzo: “We are probably the only group in the Cad/Cam/Cae sector in Italy capable of covering all digital technologies available today, from product ideation to pre-production, including aesthetic study, design and co-design, prototyping, industrialization, pre-production, custom construction, and small series, leveraging CNC machining and industrial 3D printing. The availability of all existing technologies is of strategic importance. We have noticed that customers today greatly appreciate, from service providers, the ability to offer comprehensive consultation not limited by knowledge or commercial agreements”.
According to Pagnossin as well, the ability to provide comprehensive services will be a deciding factor for the customer, who will simply have to present their problem to receive advice on the best choice: ““Depending on the sector, there may be one technology more suitable than another, different materials for different quality and accuracy requirements, different surface characteristics. The solution to be sought also depends on the specific use: one thing is a simple aesthetic check, another is functional testing, perhaps with couplings and articulations, or a standardization activity or production parts. According to the situations, we need to have all possible technologies in-house to provide the most accurate response to the customer”.
