ProM Facility Innovation and Technology Transfer Champion at SMAU Milano

Press release by Trentino Sviluppo

ProM Facility, the prototyping laboratory of the Mechatronics Hub, was a protagonist at SMAU Milano, the innovation entrepreneurship fair that involves more than 50,000 business operators from around the world every year. The laboratory, which was created by Trentino Sviluppo in collaboration with the Province Government, FBK, the University of Trento and Confindustria Trento was awarded the “SMAU Innovation Award”. “Not just a third party in the mechatronics market – the motivation note reads – but a true technology transfer hub where the best of academic and industrial research meet and blend in a public-private partnership that boosts the competitiveness of local businesses “. The Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Giuliano Poletti, on a visit to the Trentino stand in the morning, congratulated the Mecatronics Hub on becoming a national point of reference.

A 1,500 square-meter area of metal 3D printers, lathes, and cybernetic systems worth over 6 million euros and seven highly specialized technicians ready to accompany companies at all stages of developing a new product: from research and design to the actual prototyping. These are the features of the ProM Facility, the Polo Meccatronica laboratory, inaugurated in spring last year, funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento with the European Regional Development Fund (FESR) and which yesterday won the “SMAU Innovation Award” in Milan.

“An acknowledgment – Alessandro Olivi, vice president and councilor for Economic Development and Labor of the Autonomous Province of Trento says – that rewards a close teamwork among public entities, research centers and local businesses”. We aspire to become a point of reference for large industrial groups but also for small and medium-sized businesses that would otherwise find it hard to intercept the opportunities offered by the most advanced technologies, such as digital manufacturing. ”

“Reducing the costs of innovation,” Olivi emphasizes, “ultimately means making the companies more competitive, creating a truly national and European mechatronic cluster of reference.”

And smart factory and Industria 4.0 will be the topics of discussion by the “Trentino system”, which is present at the exhibit with Trentino Sviluppo, the University of Trento and FondazioneBruno Kessler, again tomorrow, October 26, with Mauro Casotto, Trentino Sviluppo Director who will be debating over the challenges associated with the automation of production processes with Deutsche Bank’s Roberto Mancone and Maurizio Riva, Intel’s country manager.

Also tomorrow, Sonia Bonfiglioli, president of the homonymous industrial group, will bring to SMAU the story of the Emilia-based multinational that has been present in the Mechatronics Hub since 2012 with a research center on power transmission and sensors in industrial engines, which has grown to the extent of becoming a world-class “business unit” for the whole group, a modern factory, built according to the principles of “Industry 4.0”, where hundreds of people work today, mostly young people trained at the University of Trento and technologists graduated from the local professional and high schools. “Because – Sonia Bonfiglioli says – Trentino is a land that knows how to network, where there are resources and excellence that it would be a shame not to make bear fruit.”

Photo by Trentino Sviluppo