Services of Hellenic CAM S.A.
7. Business plan – reduce your risk and optimise your planning
Innovation Need
Services of Hellenic CAM S.A.
- Akrivi Sofouli
- Responsive
- Deadline at 30/05/2024
- Posted by
Desired outcome
Business plan of a new startup company (working 1,5 years) in additive manufacturing sector. Our company have already two professional printers working with FFF & DLP technologies as well as, a robotic arm for Large Format Additive Manufacturing (LFAM). We have 3 employees (1 administrative and 2 technicians). Our premises is of 250m^2. We have 8 shareholders from various industrial sectors.
Initial Problem Description
According to Wohlers Associate's 2023 Report, Large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) is one of the future developments of 3D printing technology. Aerospace and Automotive industries need big tools for their manufacturing portfolios. So, the investment in large robotic arms for industrial LFAM seems to be one of the main pathways to the future of manufacturing. The problem that we want to solve with this challenge is on which other markets we should focus and improve our services.
Context
Use Case 1. "Molds for small to medium ships". The construction time of small to medium ships in conventional shipyards lasts more than 2 months. Also, labor cost among others is relatively high. The change for thew conventional method to Large Format Additive Manufacturing is our service solution to this problem reducing as well waste and other by products.
Use Case 2. "Big plastic tank construction for chemical waste". Today the construction of big plastic tanks is mainly made by large plastic sheets that curved by using heating sources and glue the various curved parts. Our proposal is to use alternatively LFAM.
Connection to cross-cutting areas
Additive manufacturing is one of the proposed technologies related to the Industry 4.0 revolution which deals with the industry digitalization. The main materials that we use in HCAM SA are pure thermoplastics e.g. PLA, PP. To reduce our carbon footprint we operate a semi-industrial recycling unit for recycling plastic supports from 3D printing constructions. In this context, our LFAM unit uses directly recycled plastic pellets for large-scale production. Additive manufacturing in principle is more "green" technology compared to molding and/or subtractive manufacturing since it uses only the appropriate amount of material. Also, the overall AM business model is much simpler, where many intermediate steps (prototyping redesign, shipping, etc) that exist in traditional manufacturing processes are not valid and thus reduce pollution.
Input
For LFAM possible scenario is mold industry for small ships, tanks and large construction (related to civil engineering). For the other two printing systems the possible scenario is prototyping and on demand manufacturing. Regarding the AM value chain generative design is very important and our company offer this service. In this context, one possible scenario is to digitize spare parts of various industries reducing that way any logistic issues of them.
Expectations
The company want to entry in new markets that AM does not evolve yet. Our advantage in LFAM will probably improve our development in these markets. Also, we don't want to be out of "mechanical engineer" traditional markets (drones, automotive, aerospace industries). On the other hand, we are expecting from the team to propose for the other two conventional 3D printers possible markets to evolve. In this context, if other 3D printing technologies should be proposed please do not hesitate to do this.
Desired Team Profile
The team that we would like to prepare our challenge, are product designers, engineers, marketers and economists. We believe that many of these experts are useful and helpful for the challenge to direct our ideas and plan. If you think that mechanical engineers would help, who could know the technological trends of the market, they would be additionally helpful.
Additional Information
According to Wohlers Associate's 2023 Report, competitors are already at a very high level abroad. The sectors of construction, healthcare, renewable energy and marine are some from which most international companies have grown. In conclusion, the value of shares of the respective AM companies generally declined in 2022. This was largely a result of the overall market decline and the shift in investor sentiment due to fears of inflation and recession. The companies' shares recovered somewhat in early 2023, but on average, stocks are down more than 50% from early 2022 levels.
Related Keywords
About Akrivi Sofouli
The reason for the establishment of H-CAM S.A. was that the field of Additive Manufacturing, is a transformational approach to industrial production, which allows the rapid and flexible production of components, spare parts and systems with desirable properties, mainly with technology known as 3D Printing.
H-CAM S.A. is a one – stop – shop in Southeastern (SE) Europe, providing integrated services and technological solutions, research, training and education to all interested in the field of Additive Manufacturing; allowing the integration of pioneering approaches and technologies from a number of innovative companies operating within Greece and abroad.
H-CAM S.A. is addressed to companies active in the fields of automotive, aerospace, transport, but also health, as well as in more “traditional” sectors of industry.
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