Last week, research centres from all Catalonia gathered for the kick-off meeting of BASE3D, a company consortium that will enhance R&D in the emerging field of 3D printing. Spearheaded by CIM-UPC, an entity affiliated to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the consortium presented their strategy, goals and work lines to leading research groups in additive manufacturing, allies of the project. The details of the project can be consulted here.

With a 3,7 M€ budget, BASE3D is co-funded at 50% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-20 of Catalunya with the support of the Departament de Recerca i Universitats of the Generalitat de Catalunya.BASE3D aims to address the current challenges of additive manufacturing technologies, among which are the formulation of new materials and multi-materials, technology optimization to create functional pieces, finishing and post-processes, improved productivity, etc. The outcomes of the project will increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL, an index which measures the maturity of a technology before reaching the market) of each of the four proposed technologies: light-induced 3D printing (Light3D), (fusion printing) Fuse3D, robocasting (Ink3D) and printing of composite materials (Hybrid3D). These projects will create a significant impact in sectors ranging from traditional to food industry to the biomedical and construction sector.

 

 

 

ICIQ participates in this consortium by coordinating one of the work packages from LIGHT3D, a valorisation project which aims at using photo-initiators to induce polymerization by visible-light to develop 3D printable resin formulations to manufacture biocompatible pieces. Frédéric Ratel, ICIQ Industrial Property Unit Manager, Fernando Bravo, CSOL Unit Manager, and Giandomenico Magagnano, project researcher at CSOL, attended the event.

BASE3D is part of the emerging technologies program that the Government of Catalonia has undertaken through its RIS3CAT strategy, and which encourages the development of new emerging activities based on innovative or disruptive technologies or processes that aim to open new markets or transform those that already exist. These are new technologies and technological applications that have a high potential to generate new economic activities and are a priority in the research and innovation policies of the Government of Catalonia and the Horizon 2020 program.