BARCELONA IS SET TO BE THE HOME FOR THE GLOBAL 3D PRINTING HUB

Renishaw, HP and Leitat are founding members of a hub that is designed to accelerate the adoption and development of additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing technologies. With an estimated investment of up to 28 million Euros from the Government of Catalonia in Spain and with the expert knowledge of the associated companies, as both manufacturer and user of the technologies, the hub will provide SMEs expert advice and the latest innovative technologies to assess, guide and address all their needs in AM.

The new Global 3D Printing Hub will focus on three key aspects that are designed to gain confidence in AM and assess manufacturing capabilities - experimenting and testing (to gain confidence in, and validate AM technologies); end-to-end solutions (AM value chain design, validation and implementation); business and mentoring (business model assessment and help to accelerate adoption).

Renishaw Ibérica´s Managing Director, Víctor Escobar, comments, “We are extremely pleased to form part of this project and, along with HP and Leitat, our aim is to drive the adoption of AM and put Barcelona on the world map as a reference point for additive technologies. AM is an evolutionary technology designed to form part of an overall manufacturing process. It has been successfully integrated into sectors such as medical and aerospace as it achieves results that are impossible to obtain from conventional manufacturing methods, such as machining”.

Ramon Pastor, Vice President and General Manager of HP 3D Printing Business, defines the announcement of the hub as “a historical day, as it represents a very important step towards the transformation of the industry. 3D printing will change the way we live in the industrial world, with more personalised and functional products”. Leitat, a member of TECNIO and recognised by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, aims to collaborate with companies and institutions by adding technological value both to products and processes. Leitat focuses its activity on research, development and industrial innovation and is firmly committed to overcome the technological challenges in the social, environmental, economic and industrial sectors. In its state of the art facilities in Terrassa (Barcelona), Leitat is involved in a wide array of projects encompassing many diverse applications including biotechnology, advanced materials, industrial chemistry, renewable energies and new production processes.