Ricoh España and the UPC’s CIM Foundation inaugurate a cutting-edge centre for 3D printing technologies
On 19 September, Ricoh España, a leader in technology and digital transformation, and the UPC’s CIM Foundation, an organisation whose mission is to generate and transfer knowledge of engineering and technology management to professionals and companies, opened the Ricoh Additive Manufacturing Centre in Barcelona. This is Ricoh’s first 3D printing and additive manufacturing centre in Spain, and will serve the international industrial market.
Sep 19, 2017
The opening of the centre, in which Ricoh has invested around €1 million, is the culmination of the agreement that they signed with the CIM Foundation to promote additive manufacturing in industry and to facilitate innovation and knowledge transfer in this field.
The synergy between Ricoh and the CIM Foundation will allow them to offer companies and professionals a range of integral 3D printing services ranging from design consulting to manufacturing and post-processing, with the aim of improving manufacturing processes and broadening the possibilities of industry.
Ricoh offers companies its cutting-edge 3D printing technology (known in industry as additive manufacturing), with a focus on R&D in the development of new plastic materials for making prototypes and customised final products.
The new centre thus strengthens the competitiveness of Industry 4.0 by developing products with more added value, because 3D technology allows mass customisation of products for industry in a shorter time and at a competitive cost, especially in the automotive, aerospace and biomedical industries.
Strategic location
Ricoh has chosen the CIM Foundation because it is a reference for technology in industry, especially among manufacturing companies that develop products. For more than 20 years this technology institute belonging to the UPC group has been leading support for the technological renewal of Catalan industry in order to improve its competitiveness. It has highly qualified staff and a wide range of digital manufacturing equipment on premises of over 1,500 m2 on the South Diagonal Campus, on Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal.
The UPC, for its part, offers leadership in Catalonia in technology transfer to professionals and companies, a key aspect of its mission together with teaching and research, in a context in which the new paradigm of Industry 4.0 needs immediate and efficient answers to boost the country’s industrial fabric. The potential of 3D printing is key to this paradigm.
A reference in additive manufacturing and 3D printing
The Ricoh Additive Manufacturing Centre is the first centre of the company in southern Europe with the capacity to implement integral advanced manufacturing and integral prototyping services. It focuses in particular on the development of new materials such as polypropylene (PP) and polyamide 6 (PA6GB). In fact, Ricoh’s new centre in Barcelona is the first in Spain to offer printing of parts directly in polypropylene using selective laser sintering technology.
In addition, the centre is a supplier of Ricoh Rapid Fab, Richoh’s worldwide network of additive manufacturing services, with offices in Great Britain and Japan.
The synergy between Ricoh and the CIM Foundation will allow them to offer companies and professionals a range of integral 3D printing services ranging from design consulting to manufacturing and post-processing, with the aim of improving manufacturing processes and broadening the possibilities of industry.
Ricoh offers companies its cutting-edge 3D printing technology (known in industry as additive manufacturing), with a focus on R&D in the development of new plastic materials for making prototypes and customised final products.
The new centre thus strengthens the competitiveness of Industry 4.0 by developing products with more added value, because 3D technology allows mass customisation of products for industry in a shorter time and at a competitive cost, especially in the automotive, aerospace and biomedical industries.
Strategic location
Ricoh has chosen the CIM Foundation because it is a reference for technology in industry, especially among manufacturing companies that develop products. For more than 20 years this technology institute belonging to the UPC group has been leading support for the technological renewal of Catalan industry in order to improve its competitiveness. It has highly qualified staff and a wide range of digital manufacturing equipment on premises of over 1,500 m2 on the South Diagonal Campus, on Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal.
The UPC, for its part, offers leadership in Catalonia in technology transfer to professionals and companies, a key aspect of its mission together with teaching and research, in a context in which the new paradigm of Industry 4.0 needs immediate and efficient answers to boost the country’s industrial fabric. The potential of 3D printing is key to this paradigm.
A reference in additive manufacturing and 3D printing
The Ricoh Additive Manufacturing Centre is the first centre of the company in southern Europe with the capacity to implement integral advanced manufacturing and integral prototyping services. It focuses in particular on the development of new materials such as polypropylene (PP) and polyamide 6 (PA6GB). In fact, Ricoh’s new centre in Barcelona is the first in Spain to offer printing of parts directly in polypropylene using selective laser sintering technology.
In addition, the centre is a supplier of Ricoh Rapid Fab, Richoh’s worldwide network of additive manufacturing services, with offices in Great Britain and Japan.