Research projects

Made4lo

Digital transformation and open innovation are the pillars of the project: two ingredients of the 4th industrial revolution that will make the metalworking industry more competitive.

A “widespread” factory for the development of 3D metal forging technologies made entirely in Lombardy: this is the aim of Metal ADditivE for LOmbardy (MADE4LO).

The project was created by a network of excellence in Lombardy who decided to share their skills, expertise and resources to manage the entire metal production chain through Additive Manufacturing, one of the qualifying technologies of Industry 4.0.

This pilot project will enable building a new model of factory based on the widespread and applied knowledge of new 3D printing technologies, on processes and infrastructures shared by the various operators of the supply chain and on extensive training activities of the technical staff involved.

The partnership involves two universities (Politecnico di Milano and the University of Pavia) and companies such as Tenova, BLM, GF Machining Solutions, 3D-NT, GFM, Fubri, Co.stamp Group, Officine Meccaniche G. Lafranconi.

GFM is involved in the design and implementation of two case studies with hybrid technology: one for the mould sector and one for the energy sector.

MADE4LO was launched in August 2017 for a total investment of 6.6 million euros, and is partially funded by the Lombard Region – as part of the Agreements for Research and Innovation – with a non-refundable grant of 3.5 million euros allocated by the European Fund of Regional Development.

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Custodian

Custodian is a European project that involves 10 partners, including research institutes and companies focused on industrial laser solutions, aimed at developing a new method that will revolutionise laser-based manufacturing applications for the automotive, energy and aerospace sectors.

The idea of the project is to create a methodology of application-driven laser beam, by tailoring the material microstructure and deploying this beam to increase quality and productivity in laser beam welding (LBW) and to solve hot-cracking in PBF-LB/M (Powder Bed Fusion with a Laser Beam on Metal).
GFM is involved as an end user in the validation of the solution identified for low weldability nickel-based superalloy applications in the energy and aerospace sectors.
This project was launched in December 2018 and received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme with Grant Agreement no. 825103. The CUSTODIAN project is a Photonics Public Private Partnership.

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