BIND 4.0 Accelerates Advancements in Additive Manufacturing
BIND 4.0, Enabling Industries to be more Sustainable & Efficient
Startups who participate in the BIND 4.0 Acceleration Program are selected by corporate partners to develop a real use case project and each year we see exciting developments in a wide variety of technologies including Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing.
Additive manufacturing with a variety of materials is widely significant to the industrial companies based in the Basque Country. Historically, the Basque region has been committed to industry and promotes activities that improve processes and enhance competitiveness. The BIND 4.0 Open Innovation Platform works with SMEs and leading corporate companies across verticals to offer them new methods and new materials to achieve this objective.
As stated by Leyre Madariaga, Director of Digital Transformation and Entrepreneurship for the Basque Government in an article published this January by 3Druck Magazine in Germany, “Additive Manufacturing is a strategic discipline for us because it enables our industry to be more efficient, sustainable and competitive in terms of lead times and production quality. The cost and production time of parts applied to various sectors such as industry and healthcare are increasingly optimized, making companies and economies stronger.”
Among the many success stories of the BIND 4.0 Platform, we will feature 3 Additive Manufacturing startup alumni. Optimus3D, collaborated with aerospace and locomotive giants Aernnova and CAF, SamyLabs worked with health industry leaders BTI and Egile and Madit Metal just finished a project in 2023 with glass industry leader Vidrala.
Benefits of Additive Manufacturing for Production
The use case project between Madit Metal and Vidrala consisted of creating cooling designs to reduce compressed air use in the manufacturing of glass. Madit Metal used 3D printing to design and create one-of-a-kind metal pieces that reduce energy consumption up to 50% and deliver better results than the previous pieces made using traditional methods. As far as how their field is affecting the market, CEO Javier Díaz says “Additive technologies represent a paradigm shift in the industrial sector and also in society as it brings many improvements in terms of production (time and cost), logistics (eliminates delocalization) and environment (they are considered more sustainable technologies).”
Madit & Vidrala: Watch the full presentation at the Demo Day 2023
SamyLabs designs, customizes and builds printers for 3D printing with metal and is currently working on manufacturing with recovered materials and on algorithms and functions to reduce thermal stress. “The advancements in design are allowing us to realize productions that would have been unimaginable before. We can reach optimum configurations with the least possible material”, observes Jon Martínez, Market Intelligence and New Products Director for SamyLabs.
Optimus 3D designs and produces unique pieces for the aeronautical, health and manufacturing industries. Among their projects are patient-customized devices for cardiology, spinal implants, projects for the elimination of polymers in the sea and nitinol research, where they are currently at the forefront. Bringing 3D printing into more facets of society represents a step in the right direction. “One of the most significant costs in manufacturing is machine time. Additive manufacturing is working to make those times shorter, while achieving more versatile and environmentally friendly results” explains Fernando Oharriz, Optimus 3D CEO and Co-Founder.
Technological Breakthroughs Boosting Industries
In summary, the development of AM technology has enabled manufacturers to save material, reduce waste generation and reduce energy usage, which is key to making industries more efficient, sustainable and, hence, competitive. Plus new materials and designs are being tested, which entail endless possibilities going forward.
BIND 4.0 has empowered many innovative startups with disruptive projects in additive manufacturing. “We have seen solutions that reduce the cost of production while delivering lighter results which also decrease thermal stress. We are excited to see additive manufacturing becoming faster, optimized and more versatile than ever.” says Leyre Madariaga.
These startups focused on 3D printing are part of a greater ecosystem developing groundbreaking technologies like AI, cybersecurity, immersive technologies, IoT, robotics, electronics and much more. By putting real solutions into place, startups participating in BIND 4.0 help bring remarkable advancements to the market across sectors. Find out more about the latest projects and startup-corporate success stories on our website.
This article is an excerpt from the 2024 feature story in 3Druck magazine BIND 4.0 Accelerates Advancements in Additive Manufacturing across Verticals (ENG) / BIND 4.0 beschleunigt den Fortschritt in der Additiven Fertigung – Interview mit Leyre Madariaga (DE)
